Kāinga Rua

Mar 2, 2016
2 min read

Ōtorohanga College has over 400 students in its student body, a percentage of which are from the western coast and must travel to the College every week to attend high school away from their families. Kāinga Rua means Home Away from Home and for the 67 Coastal kids that attend Ōtorohanga College, it means a beautiful place to live and be supported 5 days a week. Today we quite honestly travelled across the country to visit the hostel and school.

The hostel is quite like PFC in many ways: house parents, girls section, boys section, eating together, living together etc. In many ways it is different: the kids go home EVERY weekend, it costs $55/week to have your child housed there, the living is dorm style etc. There are only 2 house parents and they live on site all week and go home to the coast on weekends too.

The College (high school) dates back to the early 20th century and the original building is still on site, now being used as a sports coordinating room. It was beautiful to wander through the halls and listen to the learning happening. At the same time, as I walked down the hall, I could feel the learners of the past in the hallways. It was a beautiful feeling to be in the school.

After visiting a 4th educational institution in two weeks, you quickly make notes in your head about similarities and differences, staff cultures, student cultures, the FEEL of a place, the spirit of a building. This experience has been so enriching to see such different groups of beautiful people creating positive school communities. Without stating the obvious within their schools, there is a growth mindset happening that our schools could align with. The value system of the New Zealand curriculum is the value system I wish to see in our district- a value system that most have the beginning stages of that we can support them with. Positive School Culture is a Beautiful Thing!

On our way home, we stopped at Kiwi House to see the nocturnal national bird among MANY other feathery friends! An evening of Rugby and Pizza topped off an incredible Wednesday in NZ!

As I post this, it is Thursday morning here in Papamoa and we are off to learn Maori legends at the Mount with a group of Year 3 and 4 students!!