Te Kura o Ratana eyes future as Designated Special Character School

William Meremere (left), TeRangi Hemi, and Amy Hemi. Photo / Mike Tweed

Te Kura o Ratana wants to become Designated Special Character School as part of a raft of future plans which also include taking students up to Year 13.

Board of Trustees member William Meremere said the school's curriculum would continue to operate under the values of Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana, who founded the Ratana religion in 1918.

"The church is about the spiritual wellbeing of a person, and the movement is about the physical wellbeing of the person.

"The spirit and the body are separate, and everything we do acknowledges the dichotomy of the two.

"This is who we are."

The school remained separate from kura kaupapa Māori institutions around the country, Meremere said, because it didn't adhere to some of its values.

"We were that round peg in the square hole, and we have been trying to come up with a case to put forward to be recognised as a special, designated school."

The Ministry of Education's New Zealand Education Act of 1989 states that a Designated Special Character School is "a state school that has a particular character which sets it apart from ordinary state schools and kura kaupapa Māori".

"Just like the Catholic Churches have their own schools, we would then be recognised as a Ratana kura," Meremere said.

"It's only taken us 97 years to get to this stage, but it's something that we're passionate about getting to. We represent a community of people that belong to the same organisation, and that organisation is the Ratana Church and the Ratana movement.

"We, as a church, believe that having a strong base in our faith helps us move forward, and because there are so many distractions in this modern world, I think it's going to be harder and harder for people to remain morally centred."

Principal TeRangi Hemi said the kura was all about "learning and achievement", and while it was part of the Ratana church and community, it wasn't a merely a "conduit" - it maintained it's own identity as well.

"The first thing we do with the children that come to this school is establish trust," Hemi said.

"It's about who they are, where they're from, and helping them feel good about themselves.

"A lot of our tamariki come here with baggage from home and stuff like that, but we're able to turn them around and help them achieve to their very best."

Te Kura o Ratana encouraged its children to be "curious and forthcoming", Hemi said, and not to be afraid of seeking new information.

"Don't sit back, go forward and be confident."

The school had 25 students at the end of 2020, Meremere said, and there would be two fulltime and one part-time teacher on deck in 2021.

Extensive renovations at the school began in 2019 and are scheduled to be finished in the first quarter of 2021. Photo / Mike Tweed

In 2018, Te Kura o Ratana joined Ngā Kura ā Iwi o Aotearoa , a collective of schools with similar values to its own.

"These schools are basically stand-alone kura, whose prime ambition is to promote the values of their iwi, and the values that make them what they are," Meremere said.

"We thought 'why are we trying, in isolation, to solve certain issues?'. Now we are being helped by other people, and we use their examples to overcome some of the issues we have."

Board of Trustees member Amy Hemi, daughter of TeRangi Hemi, said a lot students went on to Cullinane College after leaving Te Kura o Ratana at the end of Year 8, but there were plans afoot to expand the school from Year 1 right through to Year 13.

"In the future we will have our own extension after Year 8, especially with the emphasis on trades-based learning in secondary education," Hemi said.

"I think that's something that would really suit us well."

Hemi said the school maintaining its own curriculum and identity meant succession could continue into the future.

"We want our kids to carry on playing in our bands and singing in our choirs, so why not teach music as well in our schools? We want them to run our marae here, and we want them to sit on the paepae (orators' bench).

"Music is a reflection of this community, and it's been a strong element in our kura. When i was coming here we always had guitars out as little six year olds, having wicked little jams.

"It's a natural, innate thing that's always been here."

Meremere said children had come from around the country to attend Te kura o Ratana over the years.

"That doesn't mean they are baptised into the church and it doesn't mean that they follow the church's teaching necessarily. They just like what we stand for.

"When people want to learn about their māramatanga (understanding of life), they mostly go to church and listen to the lay preachers explaining that, and, to be perfectly honest, that's not the ideal place to learn it.

"You listen to one person and then to another, and while the message might be the same, it sounds totally different.

"The ideal is to have a structure in place to teach those things, that has been sanctioned by the movement and the church."

Like Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana himself, Meremere said it was important for students of Te kura o Ratana to remain humble.

"That's one of the cornerstones of our school, to teach our children to soar like eagles, but don't be a turkey about it.

"We wholly believe that having that moral centre is more of a need now than it was almost 100 years ago when the school was founded. From your moral centre grows values, and the values we are portraying are those that have been left to us by our founder.

"Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open, ask and you will be given."

Te Kura o Ratana is currently undergoing extensive renovations and redevelopment, with work expected to be finished by March.