Tākaka Primary School
Kia Kotahi Tātou, Tū Tonu Mai!
Nau Mai, Haere Mai ki te Kura Tuatahi ō Tākaka
Welcome to Tākaka Primary School
Welcome to our vibrant place of learning, where we place children and their learning front and centre.
We place high value on developing strong foundations in Literacy and Mathematics and our teaching team pride themselves on striving to grow their own teaching capability to enhance learning outcomes for our tamariki. We collectively live our school value 'Open to Learning / Kia Mataara' for the benefits of our learners everyday.
Our School
Tākaka Primary is situated on 4 hectares of land with the local Kindergarten and High School just steps away. Our beautiful grounds back onto a forest and the community gardens, and we are a short walk from Tākaka town. We get the best of both worlds; being able to access town, the library and other amenities, while still being close to nature.
We have fantastic facilities that enhance the learning opportunities we provide our tamariki. These include: a heated swimming pool, a pump track and an asphalt bike track with access to school bikes daily, a school forest for outdoor learning, school gardens and green house, as well as an orchard onsite. We are fortunate to have a heated swimming pool for your child to enjoy water safety and swimming lessons during both Term 1 and 4. We have a modern school library that allows access to new books weekly for your child to enjoy at home with you. Our hall is a wonderful asset and is well utilised for assemblies and sharing learning with whānau.
786415 PROOF V06.pdfCheck out our School Prospectus for more information about what TPS has to offer!
Our school prides itself on being able to provide opportunities for students to discover themselves, one another, and their environment. We actively teach our students how to manage risks and be safe. Your children will climb trees, build huts and explore nature. They will ride bikes and scooters, zoom around, and play bull rush and rugby. They will be kids and have a great time exploring and learning!
Our committed staff work in partnership with students, whānau and one another to create learning opportunities that engage, excite and encourage our learners to lengthen their stride and reach the potential they deserve. Our school is a great place to be, supported by our strong focus on values, relationships, and creating a family-like context. Tuakana teina relationships are at the heart of living our vision in providing an environment for tamariki to thrive. Tuakana teina is a concept from te ao Māori and refers to the relationship between an older (tuakana) person and a younger (teina) person. Tuakana teina relationships are visible in many different forms throughout our kura.
What makes us special and unique?
We have some things that make us unique.
We have two hubs in our school and around 150 students.
Tākaka Primary School places great emphasis and pride on the provision of Te Reo Māori me ona tikanga throughout our kura.
We proudly offer two pathways to learning for our students; English-medium and Dual-medium. Research has shown that children who speak more than one language have definite academic advantages across all areas of the curriculum. He Puawaitanga is our dual-medium pathway throughout our kura. Our dual-medium classes are filled with Te Reo Māori, and enhanced with tikanga (culture), waiata (song), whakawhanaungatanga (connectedness), whānau (family) and awhi (support).
He Puāwaitanga Vision
Ākonga experience belonging to - and connection with - Te Ao Māori through Te Reo Māori, Tikanga Māori and Pūrākau-a-rohe.
Ākonga experience a curriculum that is developed through our Cultural Values:
He Tikanga: The kawa, tikanga, and cultural values of Manawhenua ki Mohua
Arohatia Te Reo Māori: A love of learning
Kaitiakitanga: A commitment to caring for each other, the whenua and the wider environment
Whanaungatanga: An understanding of the interconnected nature of people, places and our learning.
Our Curriculum
Connects our ākonga with the land through stories, history, rohe and Tangata Whenua in Mōhua
Embeds local tikanga and kawa of Mōhua manawhenua (Taranaki kawa) within all experiences
Provides a framework for rich learning experiences embedded in Te reo me ōna Tikanga Māori that is centred around our school values, qualities and vision
Gives prominence to Te Ao Māori across all relationships
Teaches reading and writing in both English and Te Reo.
Our Kids are 'Kia ora Kids'
Our KIA ORA Kid Values
Kotahitanga - Unity
Integrity - Pono
Adaptability - Autanga
Open to Learning - Kia Mataara
Respect - Whakaute
Aroha - Empathy
Our school values and qualities guide the way we engage in learning and play at Tākaka Primary School. They are infused into all aspects of our school learning community. Our values are future focused, ensuring we are providing our next generation with the skills and qualities they are going to need for THEIR future. These are explicitly taught and embedded throughout life at TPS.
We live our values and qualities everyday!
Our Values are the building blocks within which we grow;
Collaborative, Connected, Life Long Learners who thrive in Respectful Relationships.
learning code.pdfKia ora Kids thrive in Respectful Relationships
At Tākaka Primary School we focus on Relationship based Learning (RbL) and believe in the importance of creating 'family like' relationships across our school community. In short, we are a whānau and our relationships with students and between students are at the heart of all we do.
Our school culture is underpinned by restorative practice. The Restorative Practice model focuses on building and maintaining positive, respectful relationships across the school community and aims to maintain and restore relationships. The approach aims to improve learner well-being, and increase educational achievement.
Our mantra is
“Own it, fix it, learn from it and move on”.
When mistakes are made, we encourage ownership, accountability and responsibility, and support students to repair the harm and restore the peace.
Learning at TPS
We teach Literacy through a Structured Literacy approach at which point they develop Learning to Read Strategies aligned to the NZ curriculum. Structured Literacy is an umbrella term used to describe an explicit and sequential literacy approach that teaches ALL children to read, write and spell with confidence. This means all teachers are teaching in a way that ALL brains learn to read and spell. In Year 2-6 we also teach 'The Code', a whole school spelling programme that takes students' understanding of spelling patterns, rules, and morphology to the next level, developing independent readers and writers.
Children are learning from 5 years old to be automatic in sound-letter correspondence (just a few at a time to start - both in reading and writing), word level and sentence level reading and spelling and then into written text.
A Structured Literacy approach is much more than just reading. It includes the following that is aligned to the stage each child is working at:
decoding or reading words, sentences and text aligned to the stage
encoding or writing the sounds, words and sentences with the sounds for that stage
learning letter formation for each of the sounds
learning spelling rules for different sounds eg: when to use c versus k.
This approach is a personalised approach tailored to the individual needs of every child, to ensure we develop them as confident readers, writers and spellers.
We have just begun our Numicom journey as a means to ensure we are providing our tamariki with maths learning that is based on evidence of best practice. Numicon is a multi-sensory approach to the teaching of mathematics, built on proven pedagogy that raises achievement across all ability levels. It is a structured maths approach covering all maths strands, providing explicit teaching, explorations, and investigations based on the science of learning maths.
Teachers are using Numicon in their classrooms as a tool to target the individual needs of our learners. It allows us to meet the needs of our most able students as well as those requiring further support. Numicom is inclusive in striving towards our vision of meeting the needs of ALL learners.
Our Classrooms
Tākaka Primary School has 8 classrooms and each of these classes is named after rākau (trees) found in the ngahere (forest). These are: Pikopiko, Kōwhai, Rimu,Rāta, Nikau, Tōtara, Kauri and Kahiaktea.
Our School Houses
School Sports events, see us dressing up in support of our manu and house to compete for the Kāhui Manu House Cup.
Kāhui Manu o Tākaka Primary
The flock birds from Tākaka Primary
Our four Manu represent local birds from the mountain to the sea: Ki uta ki tai, covering all of Mohua Golden Bay.
These birds can be found flittering amongst the Pikopiko, Kōwhai, Rātā, Kānuka, Nikau, Tōtara, Kauri and Kahikatea trees. These four birds represent our school houses with the associated colour.
Our school houses provide us with another opportunity to develop whanaungatanga / relationships with others across our school.
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Find Us
We are Tākaka Primary School, Together we Stand Tall!
Whakapā mai / Contact Us
Wāhi Noho / Physical Address
Tākaka
7110
Ngā Hāora i te Tari / Office Hours
Monday to Friday (Term time)
