Once upon a time, there lived a hero by the name of Finch. Finch wasn’t a super-hero kind of hero, with muscles on muscles. Finch was the everyday kind – the sort that does all they can and hopes it will be enough. In this story, Finch sets out to find what has caused the…
Aotearoa New Zealand has one of the most unique marine environments in the world. This article explores our marine habitats and reserves and the challenges they face to stay safe, healthy, and biodiverse. Use this resource to discover more about Aotearoa New Zealand’s unique marine environments. Learn about marine reserves (including where they are and…
This article examines the rapid decline in scallop numbers due to overfishing and pollution and the efforts being made to recover and save the species. Read about how a decline in tipa (scallop) available for harvesting spurred a group into action to protect the species from overfishing. Keywords: ban, climate change, community, dredging, environment, indigenous…
Zuhaib Abbas Bangash arrived in New Zealand in 2013 with just a few hundred dollars in his pocket. Eventually, he found a job and a home. Today he owns three kebab shops, and every week he gives away over two hundred meals to people in need. Read about Zuhaib Abbas Bangash, who has made a…
Inside this School Journal are two articles (The Kaukalaikiki Girl; Living by the Maramataka), three stories (Balancing Act; Best Wedding Ever; Kāinga), one poem (A Good Kaitiaki), one student writing (Sumner Beach) and one play (All Rise).
Everyone knows the story of the Little Red Hen. Undervalued. Overworked. A feathery legend from down on the farm…
A Poem about Sumner Beach by Elise Mackay, year 5, Russley School.
In this story, a young girl reluctantly takes her older sister, Grace, who has intellectual disabilities, to visit a gannet colony. While there, the narrator’s initial impatience and defensiveness turn into a moment of shared joy and connection as they watch the birds’ humorous behavior with other visitors.
Levi’s dads are getting married, but he has other things on his mind.
In this story, a twelve-year-old girl named Hana, who has always strived for perfection in ballet, realises that the pressure of exams has turned her passion into a chore. After a stressful previous exam and a conversation with her supportive grandmother, Hana finds a “bubble of happiness” during a recital practice. She decides to stop…
In this poem, a young narrator humorously describes how his mother uses a childhood award for saving a bee to guilt-trip him into chores like tidying his room and cleaning the tank of his frog, Fred.
Heeni Hoterene is a kaitiaki of maramataka. Heeni Hoterene grew up in Horowhenua. (On her mother’s side, one of her iwi is Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga.) The area is famous for its good climate and good soil, and Heeni’s whānau had a big vegie garden. Heeni learnt a lot about gardening from her koro….
Pusi Urale’s journey from cheeky girl to artist. When she was a girl, Pusi Urale was often told she was kaukalaikiki. The word is informal Samoan and means cheeky or naughty. Mostly it’s used to describe girls who don’t quite behave the way society expects them to. But Pusi doesn’t see being kaukalaikiki as a…
Confusion reigns in the storage room at the Chinese Association. Benny, Lily, Angus and Grace are hiding out in the storage room avoiding kitchen duties, and begin debating which of their great-great grandfathers was the coolest.
Inside this School Journal there are two articles (Sapasui – It’s hard to get wrong and The Pā That Matawhero Built), one play (The Great-great-greatest), one piece of student writing (Grandad’s Couch), one biography (Princess Iwa), one poem (Deoxyribonucleic Acid), and two stories (The Story of Mauao and Sunday Hero).
In this story, a young girl helps her grandmother, who struggles with memory loss, search through a tin of old keys to find one that unlocks the garden shed. As they test the keys, Oma shares family history from the Netherlands about her own grandfather, a “Sunday hero” who stood up for the rights of…
This story is for Kihi Ngatai, the great chief of Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāti Ranginui. He passed away on 1 August 2021 at the age of ninety-one. Kihi loved his maunga. He walked around it three times a week. Toni Rolleston-Cummins shares the story with Kihi’s blessing.
I look at my dad’s chin. His chins. Are those chins in my future? I worry about my genes. Is my throat getting soft? A little flaccid? I pinch it. I’m not too sure. Those chins might be in my DNA, which is a lot easier to say than deoxyribonucleic acid.
Meet the young woman from Bluff who shared her culture on the world stage. One day, many years ago, I was visiting my pōua when I noticed a photo of a beautiful wahine on the wall. She had long, wavy hair and wore a kākahu around her shoulders and a hei tiki around her neck….
Our grandad adores his new couch. The old, red, torn one goes out, the brand-new, avocado-green one comes in wrapped in plastic, slippery like arctic ice, not coming off for a week. You hear a lion-like roar from him, his face a shade of red as the cat tries to strike when the plastic comes…
When people visit Pakeke o Whirikoka, the pā Matawhero Lloyd built, they enter a world that existed hundreds of years ago … Pakeke o Whirikoka is in Whatatutu, a small kāinga north of Gisborne. The original pā, which overlooked the Waipaoa and Mangatū rivers, was once home to Ngāi Tamatea. Matawhero’s tīpuna lived on this…
Carlos Vakalaloma has lots of interests. He likes playing rugby (he’s a prop) and doing jigsaw puzzles (the old-school kind with up to a thousand pieces). During lockdown, he also spent a lot of time cooking. Carlos really likes Italian food. But if he was forced to choose his favourite meal, to both cook and…
This School Journal contains three stories (Stranded; Happy Birthday; Red, the Pig, and the Automobile), two articles (Kura Huna: The Art of Reweti Arapere; The Story of the Ventnor), one play (Mauri Mahi, Mauri Ora) and one poem (Grumpy Hungry).
This narrative poem, told in the first person, chronicles being hungry, an experience that intensifies as time passes and which is matched by figurative language that does the same. A good model for student writing.
In 1902, thirteen lives were lost when the SS Ventnor sank off the Hokianga coast in Northland. The ship was carrying the carefully packaged bones of almost five hundred Chinese goldminers on their way home for burial. Despite immediate efforts to retrieve the bones, the ship and its precious cargo were lost. Keywords: ancestors, Aotearoa…
An inventive reimagining of the fairy-tale genre, based loosely around Little Red Riding Hood. This is a great model for student writing, especially for those who want to explore the creative possibilities of a retelling by innovating on a familiar form. Keywords: anthropomorphism, cleverness, disguise, fairy tale, fantasy, humour, innovation, Little Red Riding Hood, moral,…
Reweti Arapere learnt that the art he wanted to make was the art that emerged when he looked at the world through his Māori eyes. His giant cardboard and felt-pen figures help him to tell the stories of his whakapapa and of Aotearoa. Keywords: 3-D, ancestor, art, black, cardboard, creativity, felt pen, graffiti, hidden treasure,…
The nameless narrator and his friend Jeet, as featured in “The Polterheist”, reappear for another round of humorous high-jinks, this time involving an awkward birthday and a backyard tunnel.
Piki and his koro are trying to save some stranded whales, an experience that reminds Piki of his dad and his own troubles. Keywords: ancestor, change, conservation, environment, family, fishing, grandparent, kaitiakitanga, matriarch, persistence, Project Jonah, resilience, stranding, support, tohorā, upokohue, volunteer, wellbeing, whale, whānau
Inside this School Journal are three stories (No Girls Allowed;Trouble in the Foodlands;News for You) two Articles ( The Coprolite Hunters; All As One) one Poem ( Huia) and one play (An Interesting Situation)
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