Ngā tāonga tākaro

Last week thirty teachers spent a day immersed in professional learning based on Māori traditions, pastimes, stories and tikanga led by Harko Brown. They engaged in the protocols, experienced a range of co-operative activities and games considered how they could utilise various ideas in their own kura for social and emotional learning well as physical – and they got to take away not only, the inspiration, ideas, confidence and knowledge, but also their own woven flax bird as a tāonga.

Here are some actions that some teachers noted they’d take as a result of the workshop:

“Strip back what we are currently doing and start from the bottom with a view of weaving mātauranga Māori into every aspect.”
“Designing a vision for where our department is headed.”
“Incorporate ngā tāonga tākaro in my planning and also make use of it for prior learning and activities at camps”.
“Empower other PE staff and work with the other departments integrate a cross-curricular model in the junior school.”

Physical Education New Zealand and Harko Brown are planning to collaborate again to offer more workshops around the motu in 2023.