Principal's Message

 

Hiwinui School is a place where our learners grow and thrive. We believe every learner has potential and can achieve at their best. Our school has a lovely rural outlook towards the ranges and a community feel. We have 140 learners who are divided into two teams:

Wharite (Years 1-3) and Maharahara (Years 4-8).

Wharite and Maharahara are the highest peaks we can see from our school field as we look towards the wind turbines. The concept of these peaks is also incorporated into our vision:

‘Reach your Peak’.

We are passionate about providing our learners with opportunities that connect with their strengths and interests - we have high expectations for all. Our learning day across the school begins with Structured Literacy and Maths. Learning is also fostered through Sports, The Arts and Enviro teaching. We are incredibly proud of our Teaching and Learning Support Team and the difference these staff make everyday for our learners. We love getting to know our learners and celebrating their success. We are a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) School and our PEAK values are integrated into everything we do. In our classrooms you will notice our learners as PATHFINDERS. They will be exploring, researching, trying new things, persevering and striving to Reach their Peak. Our learners are involved in experiences ‘boots and all’ - we foster the value of being ENERGISED in how they approach tasks - this includes how they get involved and encourage others. The culture within our classrooms and around our school is built on AWHI - there is a level of kindness and compassion expected in everything we do. Lastly our value of being KAITIAKI is fostered through caring for our school and the environment around us. We are an Enviro School and learners are involved in lots of ‘hands on’ projects connected to this kaupapa. Our learners love sports and we embrace this through our school coaching programmes and sports teams. Our coaching this year includes specialist coaches working with our learners to develop skills in basketball, netball, hockey and cricket. As a school we have Hockey, Futsal, Basketball, Touch, Netball and Summer Soccer teams and at a club level lots of our students also play Football, Futsal and Rugby. In addition to this we also have a Run Club that trains weekly. Through the context of sport we are developing fit, active and competitive learners. It is a privilege to be the Principal of Hiwinui School and we believe it is a very special place for learners to be! Ngā mihi nui, Erin