Coffee and te reo Maori offered allcomers

Technology teacher Isabel Radka will have the coffee ready when parents and their children join...
Technology teacher Isabel Radka will have the coffee ready when parents and their children join her to brush up on their Maori language skills. Photo by Liam Cavanagh.

An initiative to bolster te reo Maori in Alexandra is under way.

Expressions of interest are being sought by The Terrace School to attend the new Te Puna bilingual coffee and play group session beginning on August 20.

Te Puna, meaning ''the children'', was organised by teacher Isabel Radka, with play group sessions co-ordinated by classroom teacher Hannah Dwyer.

Mrs Radka decided to start the group after completing a postgraduate diploma in Maori education at Massey University in Wellington last year.

When she returned, she realised there were not many opportunities for families in Central Otago to improve their Maori language in schools.

The play group would help encourage parents, caregivers and their children to learn and speak te reo together and help to revitalise the language, she said.

''I'm doing what I can to get a bit of awareness going,'' she said.

She is now studying for her master's degree in indigenous studies part-time at the University of Otago.

The bilingual coffee and play group was one of a few projects she raised with the school in a submission earlier this year, and the school had been very supportive, she said.

Six fluent te reo speakers are lined up on a rostered basis for the meetings.

Meetings would include singing, playing, and activities for both children and parents - as well as coffee, she said.

One of the main aims of the group was to ''try and make it an everyday experience'' so children and their parents used te reo at home, she said.

She anticipated it to start as a ''reasonably small group'' but hoped it would grow.

The new group would welcome anyone from the community, she said.

• Parents and caregivers interested in the new coffee and play group can email Hannah Dwyer at hdwyer@theterrace.school.nzliam.

cavanagh@odt.co.nz

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