The Awhina Concept
Awhi – to embrace
Willowbank
School works on the Awhina concept – the embracing of different age
levels, the nurturing that we value within our children and staff.
Children at Willowbank belong to various groups within the school, they
are part of a class, a year group team and an Awhina group.
Most
Awhina groups are made up of a Junior, a Middle and a Senior class, for
example a Y2 a Y4 and a Y6 class. These classes are situated in the
same area of the school and work together at certain times of the week
or term for buddy reading, buddy spelling, singing, art, drama etc.
Often
the Virtues programme is enhanced through these interactions. The
Awhina concept was strongly evident in our production, “All at Sea”
where the little children were helped by their Awhina buddies to learn
their parts, move on and off stage, helped with costumes, taken to
make-up and entertained backstage!
Our Awhina groups are named by
the children and are called after endangered New Zealand species;
Kakapo, Tuatara, Pekapeka, Hoiho, Pukeko, Kotuku, Kiwi, Whio, Kea,
Takahe and Kereru.
You may have noticed the odd-one-out! Yes,
Pukeko! Before the top block of classrooms was built the Pukeko’s used
to wander about in the mud, sadly the buildings chased away the Pukekos
at Willowbank so the Awhina where they used to play in the mud was named
after them. To find out what's happening in our Awhina Groups click on
any of the icons below to go directly to each of their pages.