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Kapa Haka is now embedded into
the Middle Syndicate education
experience at the Preparatory School.
Teacher Penny Munro-Foster says
students have embraced Kapa Haka
with enthusiasm. “The students are
developing a passion for what makes
New Zealand, Aotearoa unique.
They’re saying, ‘this is important to us,
this is our country and we want to do
this the best that we can’.”
The group’s talents were on show in
September when St Andrew’s hosted
the Tuhono Kapa Haka Festival. A large
number of our Years 4–6 students,
and a few Years 7 and 8 pupils and 42
students from the Secondary School,
participated alongside students from
other Christchurch schools.
“Kapa Haka gives an opportunity to
those students who would not usually
perform in front of an audience to
step out of their comfort zone and
safely learn in a large group,” says
Penny. “There is a sense of being
part of something bigger when the
whole syndicate comes together and
becomes a team.”
For the Middle Syndicate teachers,
encouraging students to learn other
languages and cultures opens their
communication and thinking abilities.
It opens up new opportunities and
gives students’ perspectives that they
may not have encountered otherwise.
The Kapa Haka group has its own
St Andrew’s school haka –
Haka o
Hatu Anaru
(St Andrew’s College
Haka), created by Matua Steve Reid
who has worked with the Kapa Haka
group on its performances.
Haere mai,
we are
New Zealand