Initial Community Consultation Evening at Huapai District School

What a privilege it was to meet with members of our community last night.  We had a fantastic turnout of over 80 people and it was great to share some of our initial thinking around our new kura.  Our Board spent a rainy Saturday doing a flyer drop to advertise the evening to most of the homes in our proposed zone a couple of weeks before the evening and we think this certainly helped!  John Petrie was very accomodating in allowing us to hos tthis event at his school and we a grateful for the support and generosity of spirit from our soon to be neighbor.

A major highlight of the evening were having Tracy Davis open the evening with a karakia and sharing with everyone how our school got its name.  We also had John McCulloch, a representative from the Private Public Partnership ShapEd consortium, share the 'fly through' of the school design and answer a few questions.

I then had the opportunity to share some embryonic thinking around our school vision and our approach to teaching & learning including how this would be situated in an innovative learning environment through collaborative pedagogy.  Alan fielded queries about our proposed enrolment zone as well.  After the presentation, the members of the board made themselves available to answer questions around the school design, enrolments, iwi consultation and the general nature of the school to come.  In addition, James Le Marquand, the principal from Arohanui Special School, was able to speak to community members about how our partnership will work within the Matua Ngaru School site. It is an exciting time!  See the slides from the evening below.

#ubiquitouslearning #waveofchange