Today was our school visit. This was an amazing intermediate (7 and 8) school for mostly low income students run by Rory O’Rouke, who I believe is from Ireland. 73% of students are Maori, % are pukeha (meaning white or European) and the other % are Pacific Islanders.
We were told to wait outside until these two girls sang a song inviting us in to the big meeting hall. Men were supposed to go first and sit in front, then the ladies!!! Bob had been elected our “Chief” and spokesperson so he went first, and when inside. He was invited up to speak for us. We then had to sing a song (Take me out to the Ball Game - I almost broke out in my tap dance routine that we used to do a couple of years ago to that song! - NOT!!! :) There was a lot of Maori language spoke by another guy who later played the guitar while the students sang in Maori. Rory said later few of the students speak it at home but can choose to have some of their classes in the language and all are required to take the language course.
I’m in Sydney now, staying at an airbnb for two nights while I visit with Darren and his wife (met him last year at the retreat at Blue Cliff, he was one of the Sandy Hook support group, and the photographer who took that great photo of Doug and I that he put up on Facebook last fall. Anyway his wife is from Sydney and they have moved back here; he’s in school now to become a counselor.
So I left my large bag, with the info on the school, in the airport until my flight to Hawaii on Tuesday, so I’ll have to give you more details on the school probably when I’m on the plane.
But we later had a guide, West, one of the chosen student leaders from the 8 year, this school is 7 and 8. West told us soon the group of leaders will go to camp and then Rory will choose one girl and one boy leader for the rest of the year. Their school year began 4 weeks ago and goes until just before Christmas next year. They have 10 weeks on, 2 weeks holiday, 10 weeks on, 2 weeks and continue until December when they have 6 weeks, like our summer vacation, especially as it’s summer here at that time!
West took us around to various parts of the school. His favorite was like Industrial Arts where they were working on a drone, robots, had a 3-d printer (see picture) which I’d never seen before - it was spitting out some plastic lego type pieces. Jackson would LOVE a classroom like this!!!
We visited a music class where two guitar students and 3 marimba students demonstrated for us. 1/2 the school was away at a camp of some sort. The students got to choose which “academy” they fit best in, which I’ll explain better when I have the booklet he gave us.
A main focus of the school was their anti-bullying program, their rewards for positive behavior. No student is ever expelled. They had just had a resolution with two students and their parents in a long meeting. Very impressive program. Our guide Peter said Rory had to follow a country-wide curriculum but how he does that is up to him.
Grand Circle Foundation supports this school and Rory said they were currently trying to see that ALL students had an Ipad available to them for home use and a few students couldn’t afford it. This is one of the reasons I really like this company as they support a school in each country they visit, bring travelers to the school and part of the money you spend for the trip goes to support it. We visit a much poorer school in Zimbabwe and part of Peter’s job is to visit the school and see what’s been done. Cool!
More on the school later!
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