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. 

Year 6 Open Day visit to EBIS

On Wednesday, our Year 6 students had the opportunity to spend a day at Evans Bay Intermediate (EBIS), giving them a taste of what life might be like when they move on to intermediate school. Throughout the day, the kids had the chance to try their hand at a range of specialist subjects and experience some of the opportunities available at intermediate. They got creative in Art with Mrs Booleris, blew up stuff in Science with Mr Chalk, explored Digital Technologies using TinkerCad with Mr Hart and Mr McNamee, enjoyed PE with Mr Ashcroft and Mr Barrett, took some time to focus and reset during Mindfulness with Matua Rob, and even got into the kitchen for some Cooking with Miss B! One of the highlights was being able to meet some of the teachers and get a feel for the different learning environments. It was also lovely for our students to reconnect with friends from Worser Bay School, as well as kids they know from sports teams and extracurricular activities. It was great to see how many ex-Worser Bay kids were chosen to guide and support the Year 6 students, who can you spot in these photos?

There was plenty of time for fun and socialising too. At lunchtime, students enjoyed a sausage sizzle (cooked by Principal Howard Young himself, and had the chance to play in the playground with their friends before heading back into their activities. It was a busy, fun-filled day, and our kids embraced every opportunity to have a go, learn something new and enjoy themselves - in true Worser Bay spirit. They came back full of enthusiasm, and it was fantastic to see them making the most of this opportunity to experience a little taste of intermediate life!