The Art of Persuasion

 The walls are alive in Matariki with the year 4's exploration of persuasive writing. Throughout the process they have learned how to plan, draft and publish an argument or opinion. 

We have used resources like word banks as well as the trusty dictionary to search for adjectives that add flavour to our arguments and can paint a picture for our audience.

This all ties nicely into our upcoming inquiry topic for this term where we will be exploring the elections process in New Zealand, how parties create their vision for the country through policy and how a government is formed.

Our learners will be creating their own parties and campaigning in order to win some votes from their fellow students in our own Worser Bay School elections. They will need to use all their powers of persuasion to win over the voters with their policy platform. 

We look forward to sharing our progress with you over the coming weeks through Seesaw and our blog.

Don't forget to enrol to vote!

Zealandia

 We were so lucky to have the best weather for our recent trip to Zealandia. Our Year 5/6 cohort have been engaged in some local bird watching and bird of the year campaigning, so this trip was well placed to coincide with that learning. 
Our amazing guides were able to help us notice the range of wildlife and look for clues in the environment that showed the activity of the nocturnal creatures.
Check out these amazing pics.

The fencing helps keep out  any predators from entering Zealandia. The catch at the top is to stop the climbers from getting in.

We learned that it needs to be at least 10 degrees for the Tuatara to venture out of their burrows.

The elusive Takahē

An Orb Web Spider

Attached to this Tautara are Tautara ticks which are as endangered as the Tuatara itself.

We saw so many different creatures during our visit. Many of which we are lucky to see here in Motu Kairangi thanks to the predator free work. Many of the creatures need the safe sanctuary space of Zealandia to ensure their ongoing survival.

Our learners were inspired by what they saw and we look forward to the ongoing learning about our local conservation efforts.

Arts Celebration 2026

Huge congratulations to the Māhutonga Matariki tamariki for such an incredible achievement! Performing four shows across two nights is a massive effort, and managing a student-devised performance demonstrates deep engagement, creativity, and leadership. By taking ownership of the production—from scripting to set design and sound composition—our tamariki directly embodied the key strands of the New Zealand Curriculum (The Arts/Ngā Toi): Drama (Whakaari): Developing Ideas & Communicating: Writing their own scripts, devising original scenes, and structuring the narrative of Kupe and the Giant Wheke. Understanding Context: Retelling traditional Māori narratives (pūrākau) to connect with cultural heritage and Matariki. Visual Arts (Toi Whakaari / Toi Ataata): Developing Practical Knowledge & Crafting: Working alongside Cloe to design and construct a functional, moving backdrop—applying concepts of scale, texture, motion, and visual storytelling. Music (Pūoro): Creating & Representing Sound: Collaborating with Kirsten to compose original soundscapes and music that convey mood, dramatic tension, and atmospheric depth for the story. Key Competencies in Action: Participating and Contributing & Managing Self: Working in collaborative groups, rehearsing over time, coordinating technical production, and performing live before an audience. Congratulations tamariki! Ka mau te wehi!

Road Safety

 

This week we had our annual road patrol training with School Community Officer Constable Dann. This session is about all things road safety and growing the responsibility of our students when they are crossing the road themselves and eventually helping others to cross. As our Worser Bay School students get older, we support them in growing their leadership through opportunities like these. Building their sense of positive purpose and giving back to our community are important values that we help support our students with. 

Apart from already being a knowledgable bunch around road saftey, our learning uncovered new things about the different types of crossings that we use. At Worser Bay we have a Kea crossing as well as a Pedestrian crossing. Below are some helpful explainer videos that we took a look at.

Making sure to look both ways!

Finally in the session, we got to experience running a road patrol with the support of Constable Dann. We are very lucky to work with someone with great knowledge and skill to help our learners grow.

Look out for these new road patrollers in the near future and listen out for the: Check! Clear! Cross now!

Put on your dancing shoes!

We were very lucky to welcome Jordana from the Royal New Zealand Ballet to support our learning as we prepare for our Arts Celebration in Week 9. Jordana's lesson was inspired by RNZB's show 'The Bomb - Te Pohū' (based on the book with the same title, and written by Sacha Cotter), with Jordana sharing her expertise and helping us develop our movement and understanding of dance. A huge ngā mihi to Jordana for giving up her time to work with us and share her knowledge.

Learning Celebrations

 Earlier this week we had our annual celebration of learning where our amazing learners curate some of the learning that they are most proud of to share with their whanau. The format asked three questions of the learners.

What piece of work are you proud of?
What learning does this piece show? 
What are your next steps?

We were very proud of the way that the learners in Māhutonga Matariki could talk about what they had achieved and the learning that sits behind it.