to follow Māori calendar
It has been 18 months in the making but, finally, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and the Ministry of Education have allowed Te Wharekura o Ngāti Rongomai to rearrange its dates of schooling for the year and reset to the Maramataka Māori away from the Gregorian calendar, which is a solar dating system used by most of the world.
Tūkiterangi and Rēnata Curtis, co-principals of the school in Rotorua, say they were thrilled to learn they can go ahead. This now means the school can change term one, which will start at the middle of the year when every other school starts term three.
There will be four weeks' holiday instead of two weeks for every end-of-term holiday. This is done to align the tauira to the Maramataka Māori and rest and work with students in sync with the Maramataka also.
Asked why the school wants to follow the Māori calendar, which is based on seasons and stars Tūkiterangi says: “It's a Māori pathway, it's Māori teaching, it's Māori developing Māori. We wanted to find out how we could implement this into today's teaching curriculum.”
Link to video and article: First school in New Zealand to follow Māori calendar | Stuff.co.nz
