Culture at Otane School

Unfortunately COVID has put a dampener on our cultural celebrations but we will get back to it!

At Otane School we acknowledge the bicultural nature of our nation in an organic way.  Our staff are strongly encouraged to pronounce Te Reo Māori as accurately as they can, with teaching offered to support where needed.  It is important to us that our children are secure in their identity, we cannot say that and then mis-pronounce 'their' most important word (their names).  We start our day together as a school whānau with Karakia and sharing whakaaro pai (good thoughts) and waiata.  Tamariki have kaupapa Māori from Monday - Thursday to help them build an understanding of the language and culture.  We end our day all together to finish on a positive note.  ​​​​​​​

We also love to learn about our multi-cultural Aotearoa.  We incorporate learning about different cultures through our kaupapa.  It is our goal to learn about all of our students and their whānau and embrace the diversity this brings to our school.  We can all contribute to this by pronouncing names correctly and building genuine relationships with our students and whānau, by teaching and learning in contexts that are relevant and relative to them.  We appreciate the opportunity to learn from our whānau about their culture.