Conceptual Pathway

Progression of the concept across the school

Years 0-2

Years 3 and 4

Years 5 and 6

Years 7 and 8

Students can identify and talk about what kaitiakitanga is in relation to their world and share ideas about how they impact on their world.

Students explain and understand their role as kaitiaki in relation to our school, home and hapori.

Students understand current issues or real-world problems related to the environment, our NZ cultures and languages.

Students know appropriate kaitiaki behaviours, mindset, and perspective.

Students gain a deeper understanding of the concept of Kaitiakitanga and collaborate to solve problems that they identify, by understanding that more can be achieved collectively. They can ask questions and seek answers from a range of sources to help solve real-life problems.

Key Questions

• How do we look after/protect ourselves, our whānau, our school, our language?
• How can we be a guardian/kaitiaki?
• What is a guardian? What do you look after? Ourselves, our class (helping hands), our family, our beach/environment?

LEARN

• This term we introduced Barry the Rapanui Axolotl to our ākonga. They researched  how to be a kaitiaki for Barry and love the opportunity to look after him.
• In our Rapanui Immersion days we learnt about our landmark of Rapanui as a habitat and the different animals that we would find at home in Rapanui.
• We focused on Pātiki, Tuna, Tōrea, Kawau and learned about these animals. We also used this learning to adopt these manifestations as the names for our learning spaces.
• We used the CCC-Search the shoreline programme as an opportunity to use our local area as a resource for learning. During this programme our students learned about what is ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’ on the beach. They particularly enjoyed the kaitiaki scavenger hunt where the students had to sort items found into ‘natural’ and ‘unnatural’
• The students were taught by Chris from CCC about what could happen to the creatures on the beach if they came into contact with the rubbish and they made signs about picking up rubbish or protecting the beach. It was very engaging for all. We also went back to school to write about this learning.

• We also learned how to be the kaitiaki of our school and spent time looking after our learning spaces and playground by using ‘helping hands’.
• Matariki- protecting our culture and language, Te Reo Māori pronunciation. We took the time to teach why we were celebrating Matariki with a special holiday and celebrating it as a school. We also had a Matariki rotation with the teachers of Rapanui on the school Matariki day- Students got to sing waita and work on their Māori pronunciation, played rakau, created Matariki art and made a Maratiki kite.

CREATE

• Artwork of manifestations
• Writing about the different habitats of Pātiki, Tuna, Tōrea, Kawau
• Students brought in pictures of themselves being Kaitiaki at home for their show and tell (Kõrero Atu)
• Writing about our beach trip experience
• What makes a good Kaitiaki at home and at school (writing books)
• Dioramas of manifestations habitats- continuing into Term 3 Week 1- to be shared at learning conferences

SHARE

• School Assembly of beach trip and kaitiakitanga in Rapanui- sharing our learning through a video  
• Seesaw posts of our activities.
• Sharing this learning in our Pitopito Kōrero
• Our writing from the inquiry was displayed in the classroom.
• We will share our dioramas at Learning conferences in Week 2 of Term 3
• Manifestation classroom art displays visible for all

Key Questions

• How can we be proactive kaitiaki in our school, home and community?
• Kaitiakitanga focus -work as guardians of our place to actively protect its environment. -Maui Dolphins
• ‘People’s actions can affect the survival of Maui’s dolphins, leading to changes in the ecology of our world.’
• Why isn’t more being done to save the endangered Maui’s dolphin from extinction?
•  Why is it important to save the Hector's / Maui’s dolphins from extinction?
• Students understand their role as kaitiaki in relation to our school, home and hapori.

They know that being kaitiaki relates to the environment, as well as our NZ cultures and languages.  

Manaaki whenua,

manaaki tangata,

haere whakamua

He tu te Pahu, He tu te Tai – If the dolphin is well, so too are our coasts (Waitaha proverb).

LEARN

• Our learning linked to our Cultural Narrative landmark of Tuawera and the Māori legend of the whale. As part of this our learning focused around the Jonah Project and the protection of whales and dolphins.
• Our focus this year was on the Maui dolphin. As part of this we learnt facts about the Maui dolphins through a variety of sources.

• We utilised and used School Journal articles through reading to ‘ skim, scan and dig deep’.
• Caroline Bruner from WWF and Phillipa Brakes , Marine Biologist (one live and one via zoom), sharing slideshows - bank of knowledge and new information about Maui and Hector Dolphins.
• We learnt about factual writing / report writing and persuasive writing, in which children learnt the structure and learnt to persuade - ending up with some letters being written to MP’s and our Prime Minister.
• We explored different reasons why the dolphins are endangered
• Echolocation as part of discovery

CREATE

We explored what we can do to help -  SO WHAT?  We brainstormed with the children and formed interchange groups in four of the areas they suggested.

• We encouraged the children to choose from four different choices of what they would like to create to share their learning about the Maui and Hector dolphins. They were able to create dioramas, stop motion videos, songwriting/lyrics/music creation, research/persuasive posters.
• The children wrote and published persuasive letters to send to our local MP Tracey McLellan and to Jacinda Ardern.
• We created visual art of dolphin drawings, as well as other sea creatures as part of the classroom programme.

SHARE

• All children were given the opportunity to share their learning through assembly with whānau and with one another. They shared their dioramas, stop motion videos, songwriting/lyrics/music creation, research/persuasive posters. After the Hui, Whanau were offered the opportunity to stay and look at the work more closely that was on display around the hall.
• Seesaw was used throughout to share current learning with home.

Key Questions

• What is Kaitiakitanga and how can we demonstrate this in our community?
• What impacts are there on the rocky shore at Te Onepoto?
  How can we be good kaitiaki and help protect the ocean, marine life and animals that live at Te Onepoto?

LEARN

• We began with a Cultural Narrative scavenger hunt where we learnt about the different parts of the school, the hub and room names and how they related to our local place.
• We also had discussions about kaitiakitanga and how we can demonstrate being a kaitiaki in our hub and in our school.
• Taylor’s Mistake - On the Rocks Trip - All Te Onepoto students had a half day trip to Te Onepoto. Children learned about how we can be kaitiaki of our local environment, specifically the ecosystems of our seashore and rock pools at Te Onepoto.
• Students learnt about the different impacts on Te Onepoto such as pests (possums, stoats etc), climate change, pollution, litter etc.
• Reading programme learning about kaitiakitanga and the impacts, through our reading programme and school journals.
• Inquiry skills such as note taking, researching skills, questioning and mind mapping which helps them with the create aspect of their project.

CREATE

• We brainstormed different ways we could be kaitiaki by doing a bus stop activity (children moving from one station to the next answerin\g a question) and children collaborated in groups to discuss different options.
• Students chose a range of ways to present their learning such as google slides, puppet shows, plays and posters. They worked collaboratively on this and chose an area of learning that they were interested in. They had to follow a process of writing a question, researching for the answer by using different resources and then choose how to present their findings to their peers, teacher and whanau.
• We carried out a pre and post assessment of what Kaitiakitanga was and how this related to our school and Te Onepoto (Taylor’s Mistake). Differences in understanding and learning in students was evident especially in knowing how we can make a difference to Te Onepoto, and understanding Sumner’s cultural narrative. In our post assessment where students identified exactly what they can do to help Te Onepoto. They were specific in answering this and through their inquiry showed what a difference they could make to our local environment.  

SHARE

• Shared learning of our Kaitiakitanga Inquiry through seesaw and within our hubs through presentations in groups and joining together to make bigger groups.
• We were able to share parts of our learning at our Te Onepoto assembly, especially our learning from the Te Onepoto trip.  

Key Questions

• What are the effects of natural and man-made disasters on the environment?
• What action has been taken or could be taken to mitigate the causes and effect of disasters?

LEARN

We began by finding out what our ākonga knew about disasters and their effects on people and the environment. They were asked:

• What different types of natural disasters do you know of?
• What effects can natural disasters have on our environment?
• What effects can natural disasters have on people's lives?
• In what ways do people respond to the effects of  natural disasters?

Three NZ disasters were then studied in detail. The 2011 Christchurch Earthquake, the 1969 Wahine Disaster and the 2011 Rena Disaster. For each of these, facts and opinions were gathered through our  learning in reading and writing lessons.

For each of these disasters the effects on people and the local environment were examined.

We then studied the community's responses. A link between these responses and kaitiakitanga was made by examining how people restored and repaired the environment.

A current and local response to an environmental issue is the Tui Bird Corridor Project. This project aims to create a corridor of native planting between Banks Peninsula and Christchurch City to bring Tui back to the central city. The children were visited by Hannah Duder from the Christchurch Foundation who spoke to us about the project and how the children could get involved.

Our involvement is the adoption of Nicholson Park by the Awaroa Hub. We planned to visit the park to plant native trees with the help of Hannah and Park Ranger Holly Whitaker. Unfortunately this trip had to be cancelled due to weather but we are planning to try this visit again in Week 1 of Term 3. We are aiming to make the link between Awaroa ākonga and Nicholson Park a long lasting one that will put kaitiakitanga into practice.

CREATE

A successful element of this inquiry learning was the strong link to our learning in Literacy. People's responses to the New Zealand disasters that were studied, provided great stimulus for writing outcomes like the newspaper reports seen above.

The Canva posters created by the children showed the

culmination of their knowledge and thinking of the disasters.

This allowed the children to see if there were any common responses

to each of the 3 disasters.

For the final task the children were asked to create a

Venn Diagram of the responses. This clearly showed

that there were unique and common

responses to the environmental and human

consequences of these disasters.                                                                                    

SHARE

Our learning outcomes were shared with whānau via Seesaw. We also had the opportunity to share some of our writing outcomes about the kaitiakitanga shown to the survivors of the Wahine Disaster in the whole school assembly that Awaroa hosted in Week 7.

Rapanui

Student Voice:

We asked students “What is Kaitiakitanga?” at the beginning of the inquiry and the end. It was interesting to hear students’ knowledge at the beginning and end of the term. Some of our younger students continue to get confused with the different school values and we continue to keep teaching the differences. Some had some understanding already, some had other ideas linked to Whanaungatanga. We also wanted to teach our students about the Rapanui cultural narrative and the manifestations- especially with protecting our Te Re Māori language and culture. This shaped the direction of our Inquiry learning. We wanted to guide them towards how to learn to be guardians and look after their things, school, community and environment.

These (see below) were their ideas and thinking by the end of the term. We were pleased to see some learning but there is more to continue learning around Kaitiakitanga in the junior school. Like we did with Whanaungatanga, we plan to continue to integrate the language of Kaitiakitanga and what it means into our everyday teaching and expectations of our space.

A mixture of Year 0-2 students sharing their ideas about our inquiry learning this term:

Learn, Create, Share process:

Once again we found that in using the Manaiakalani model of Learn/Create/Share in teaching through the School Values,  we were able to authentically embed these into our planning and teaching. We really wanted our Rapanui students to develop more of an understanding of what Kaitiakitanga means and also our part of the cultural narrative. We feel through the Learn, Create, Share model we gave the students many learning opportunities to develop these understandings.

We planned each week to share something on Seesaw to our whānau and are excited about sharing the dioramas of the manifestation habitats at the learning conferences. We are planning to base our next inquiry to have a digital lense as part of the Learn, Create and Share process and we will use Seesaw as a platform to share with our whānau.

Tuawera

Student Voice:

Our learners were asked:

• What did you enjoy and why?
• What would you like more of?
• What did you find difficult?
• What would you like to learn in Term 3?

In summary, our learners benefited and enjoyed the opportunity to take time to learn deeply about our inquiry as it enabled them to draw on this knowledge with confidence in the create and share stages of our inquiry cycle.

Learn, Create, Share process:

We spent the first 6 weeks of inquiry this term focussing on the Learn phase. This was successful as, when the children began their ‘create’ work they had a large bank of specific knowledge and deeper understandings to use when creating the work to share.  

Student voice and student agency was a focus and our learners came up with ideas for what knowledge we wanted to share and how and what we could create to do this. They all  voted for their preferences and were put into groups. We utilised teacher skills and interests to support the different groups.

We were fortunate to have a final end of term Hui that we were able to share with our families. We also took the opportunity to successfully share work on display tables after the Hui for children to show their work to their parents.  We used Seesaw during the term to share our learning and will continue to look at how we can extend this.

Te Onepoto

Student Voice:

What is Kaitiakitanga?

• Looking after the environment and things in it, not polluting and littering
• Being a guardian of our environment and school - not dropping rubbish and picking up others, not damaging the environment
• Being responsible for the place around us.
• Caring for the environment, looking after plants and furniture - both inside and outside space
• Cleaning up after yourself, not littering, treating things with respect.
• Caring for everything around you in your space
• Looking after the planet

What did you learn in your Kaitiakitanga inquiry?

• If you put oil into the water, it kills the environment as there is a chemical which can harm the animals. Less boats in the water transporting oil which means less spills.
• Learning about pollution - in cigarettes bud there is chemical in it . Pick up rubbish on the beach so that it doesn’t harm environment
• Many pests hurt our environment and native creatures. Kills the native birds in Te Onepoto and damages the plants. We can help by setting more traps.
• Marine animals are in danger from littering and plastic. Didn’t realise how serious it was. Not drop rubbish, walk or bike to school rather than use a car.
• Climate change - harm the marine animals in the different tidal zones. We can help it by not using as much petrol in our daily lives.
• Pollution - risky to carry big containers of oil on a boat, big waves hit oil fall off kills marine life, stuck in the water.
• Possums and how they affect the environment  and the diseases spread and how they kill at Te Onepoto. Possums - predators, bigger problem in NZ than Aus. Nuisance what to do to help - trap them and not feed them. Poison - not only possums eat and drink this - native birds and dogs, cats eat them.
• Global warming has a big impact on Taylors mistake - sea levels rising and more chance of flooding - affect the sea life, rock pools, homes
• More factories are being built affecting the smoke and greenhouse gas level which affects the earth as it warms it up which affects sea life.

What did you enjoy?

• Learning how to help the environment, creating a slide or a poster, choose what we learn about within kaitiakitanga
• Was fun learning about new things - stoats
• The Te Onepoto trip was a highlight. This was noted by most of the students!  We enjoyed learning about the mussels, scavenger hunt with sea critters, card game, finding the food chain. Taylor’s Trip was awesome going to the beach, rock pools, seeing wildlife, and seeing it from a new angle (as we just surf, swim etc at Taylor’s normally). We got to inspect it and see more than what meets the eye. We learnt stuff about animals and rock pools.
• Being able to work with my friends  and choose our group
• Learning about different sea creatures - related back to Te Onepoto and Sumner.
• Going into the rockpools and finding the creatures - sea stars, fish etc.
• Worked really well together with my buddy and a topic that we enjoyed rather than everything
• Lots of researching and how we could help
• Learn about bigger problems in the world
• Learning how to use library site and finding good websites
• Workshops with teachers - helpful but needed more time

What did you find difficult?

• Hard to go to different websites to research, finding good websites that relate to Te Onepoto (Taylor’s Mistake)
• To remember all the information
• Choosing a search topic - key words

Our next inquiry value is Mōhiotanga (learning). What would you like to learn about next term?

• Drama and Dance
• More of the history of Sumner
• Science - different chemicals, experiments
• Animals
• Art - x2
• More maths 
• History outside of NZ - World War 2 history
• Countries
• Digital technology - scratch, beebots, coding, programming  x4
• Human body
• Sport - do more sport, korfball, tournaments are fun. Learn new sports that we have never done before - different sports each game each week.

Learn, Create, Share process:

For the majority of this Inquiry, we focused on Learn and getting the students engaged in what we were learning about and understanding the concept of Kaikitakitanga. The Te Onepoto trip was a great introduction for the students and got them excited about kaitiakitanga and how to be a guardian of our place. This was a great introduction to the impacts on our environment which prompted the rest of our learning for the Inquiry. It was great to see students having more ownership about what they were learning and giving them the chance to be able to collaborate and create giving them choice in their learning. This helped with the engagement from our students and what information they retained.

Awaroa

Student Voice:

These responses are a selection taken from our survey at the end of the inquiry.

What are some of the different ways that people respond to disasters?

• The Military, Defence Force and other personnel all had a role to play in responding to disasters. For example, the ambulance responded to calls on the Wāhine and in the ChCh Earthquake as many people were injured. Volunteers also had a massive role to play in the cleanup of the Rena disaster. If it wasn't for the masses of volunteers that helped oiled birds and cleaned up the beach, the beach never would have gotten clean. In the ChCh Earthquake, masses of policemen and women helped those affected by the earthquake, by lifting rocks, helping people out of dangerous areas and other very heroic things. People braved the dangerous oil to help sea birds from the Rena spill, and vets helped nurse them back to health.

• Some ways people have responded to some of these disasters include the big beach clean up, in Bay of Plenty an amazing 8,000 people took to the beaches. Another occured in the Christchurch earthquake where a group of students was formed to help others in need for the proper authorities appeared one person turned into a group of hundreds. Another is one from the Wāhine disaster: random people out in the harbour took to the seas to save lives.

• People can respond to disasters in many different ways. One of the most common responses is helping the people that have been injured or badly affected by the disaster. This could mean that doctors, police, and firemen could be called up to help out. Another response is rebuilding or demolishing buildings that have been damaged in a disaster, like an earthquake or fire. If the buildings are too dangerous to be kept around, they will demolish it, and might rebuild it some time after.

• The police departments helped to see if everyone was ok, the salvation army went to help with urgent humanitarian needs, the fire department helped with fires and structural damage, the wildlife rescue teams helped save animals and builders helped fix damage.

How can these responses show kaitiakitanga?

• These responses show kaitiakitanga because they are saving natural beings/places. For example, if volunteers did not help the endangered seabirds from the oil, then we would have barely any penguins/seagulls there at all. Everyone who helped in the ChCh Earthquake was saving people. And the Wāhine was the same. Everyone who helped is a kaitiaki warrior.

• Some of the responses that show kaitiakitanga are the ones that help people or animals. Like building a shelter for the people that have lost their homes, or helping animals who have been hurt by the disaster.

• These responses showed guardianship by doing the beach clean up and helping the birds and sea life helping each other with keeping houses safe and helping each other and by being guardians for NZ

• With the Rena disaster so many people helped to clean the beaches and save the sea life affected. With the Christchurch earthquake so many volunteered to create the student volunteer army and with the Wahine many police officers rushed to the scene to help care for each other.

Learn, Create, Share process:

For this Inquiry we put more emphasis on the Learn phase as the Y7/8 students are capable in this area and then produce outcomes with greater depth. The sharing was of high quality and we look forward to engaging  Whānau more in a face to face way as we found sharing in our Awaroa Assembly  to be a positive experience.