2007 was another great year for our kura. Our numbers continued to grow, and we had an awesome new group of Year 1 students in te reo. We focused on consolidating and building a strong base for our kura, and made some important decisions abut our future direction.

Coming up in 2008 our emphasis will be on making these things happen – setting up our new Te Ataarangi rohe and welcoming our second kaiako Hinerapa who will take our year 2/3 class.

Some highlights for 2007 ...

two more excellent hui rumaki where we continued to be amazed by the wisdom and knowledge and support of our visiting Te Ataarangi kaiako. We were honoured by the presence of Te Hei Koko at the first one, and at the second we met our new taonga Hinerapa. Ka mau te wehi!

A whaikorero/karanga wananga run with the broader community which got a great response.

An awesome fundraising effort led by Hori White which helped make up the difference between what comes in as fees and what we spend on running the classes and the rumaki.

Fundraising saw us run a really successful stall at the New Zealand Festival where we quickly sold out of our rekareka mussel chowder and we kept the wharepaku situation under control (phew)… In fact we did such a great job that we even got to clean the wharepaku at NSW Maori Rugby League!

A social with entertainment by Kimi and his band and more reka kai ....

A visit by Whirimako Black who was incredibly inspiring in so many ways – incredible reo, aroha and what a beautiful voice! We had a fantastic night.

And we continued to work with our wider community to support each other – aroha mai, aroha atu.

So thanks everybody for everything and here’s to 2008!