Project Rise Community co-design day: An invitation to redesign our facilities.

This week, I was invited to take part in a co-design workshop to review and discuss one of the 3 key aspects of the Project RISE initiative (for more info click here)

I choose facilities because I have been at the school for over 20 years and the last time I remember seeing a new build was probably back in 2006 when the EP6 block was opened.

Although I wished our whole staff could have participated, I felt blessed to be at a table with a wide range of our T.C staff, both new and old, Maori and Pasifika, male and female as well as 4 ex-students and double the blessing we had Rev Joel with us too!  We were able to brainstorm some creative ideas and it was a really cool session where we able to designed our dream ideal space.

Rev Joel, James and Ruiha practising for the big presentation

At the end of the day, each group had to stand up and present to the whole workshop.  We called ourselves ‘Le Puha’ and all the Tongans in the room had a giggle when Rev said our name.  Our design was so well received, we even made the newsletter.  I can’t wait to see where the journey goes from here.

Our team made the front page!

T.C Sos Dept #2: Social Sciences connecting with Project RISE

Making connections with Project RISE

At the end of last year, our staff were introduced to a new initiative called ‘Project RISE’ that would involve working more closely with our community to support the needs of our young people and their families.  In December 2021, each department started with an initial meeting with two of the initiatives directors, Ina Micheal and Tash Audi who shared how important our curriculum area was in the greater scheme of Project RISE.

This week Ina and Tash returned to our department meeting this year to provide us with an update of where the project was at and where any ideas we had could inform the projects progress moving forward.  We shared all the different ways we already connected with our community and our hopes with developing these connections better moving forward.

A key aspect we raised was the need for a creative and performing arts space.  We can teach kids about the content of their histories and perspectives and about their culture and identity but they have no outlet to show this in performing arts and these needs to be valued.  After a good discussion about what we would want in an ideal world, we identified some key plans moving forward. It was a productive session and we shared how excited we were to have a voice in some of the key decisions around learning spaces in the school.