Taikura Rudolf Steiner School opens new whare after years of mahi

Taikura Rudolf Steiner School principal Pippa Caccioppoli (left) and Māori teacher Troy Gardner at Te Manukura after its official blessing last Wednesday. Photo / Warren Buckland

After years of hard mahi and planning, Taikura Rudolf Steiner School in Hastings opened its new whare last Wednesday morning with a blessing and ceremony.

Principal Pippa Caccioppoli said the opening of Te Manukura marked an important day for the school.

“It’s a significant event for us. Te reo and te ao Māori have been a significant part of our school since the 70s.”

She said the predominant use of the whare would be as a teaching space, with te reo and te ao Māori being a compulsory part of the curriculum for all students from kindergarten up to Year 11.

“We’ve been incredibly fortunate to have a number of kaumātua who have been our te teo teachers over the years, who have ensured te reo has been a core part of our curriculum.”

The whare was also a space for those in the school community to come together for things like pōwhiri, whakatau (less-fomal welcome ceremony) and their waiata mai group.

Before the space was built, Caccioppoli said the school held classes out of a prefab that used to sit on the site, and which was eventually deemed unfit for purpose.

“To finally have a purpose-built space is fantastic because we have sort of had to make do over the years.

“During the building process we had a vacant space on the ground floor of Taikura house, where we have been running our classes for the last few of years.”

She said while the project itself had been underway for about three years, working towards the outcome had “been a much bigger and longer picture”.

“We have a long history of having fantastic support from the Māori members of our community. We had a group of parents who created a strategy a number of years ago now about how to ensure not just the language, but the tikanga was very strong in our school.

“In a way, Te Manukura represents a lot of that work in seeing it come to fruition.”

Taikura Rudolf Steiner School had its beginnings as Queenswood, a private girls’ primary boarding and day school that opened about 1921.

In its present form, Rudolf Steiner campuses in Hastings accommodate primary and high school students in co-educational environments.