Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou  

Te Aro School is a vibrant and bustling learning environment where diversity is valued. I love being here! I love the school’s cultural mix, the staff team, the students and the fact that we are a hidden gem on the edge of the city. It still amazes me that so many Wellingtonians don’t even know there is a school at this end of The Terrace.

We are a full primary school catering for new entrant to Year 8 (5 years – 13 years old) children. We have 9 classrooms catering for a roll of approximately 240. We are about to begin a major building project that we will see us having a new four classrooms built for our Year 5 – 8 students.

Many of our students speak English as their second or third language. These students are well supported by our experienced ESOL trained teacher and the teaching team as a whole.

Across the school all students participate in te reo and tikanga Maori lessons. We are proud of our school’s kapa haka group and our tradition of welcoming formally each term all new staff and students at a school powhiri.  We continue to strengthen this aspect of our curriculum.

On an annual basis in Term 3 the school celebrates the arts with the school presenting either a school-wide art exhibition or a school production. Both the art exhibition and school production are wonderful ways for the school to celebrate our students’ creativity, their curiosity, their innovation, and their perseverance.

A commitment by the school and the wider school community to environmental sustainability is recognised in a number of key initiatives including the up-keep of our vegetable gardens; a small orchard of fruit trees, a native plant garden and skink garden; a joint community and school project that built an up-cycled greenhouse; and the maintenance of our school bee hives.

Students across the school participate in Mandarin language and Chinese cultural classes led by our Mandarin language Assistant (MLA) from China and supported by one of our teachers.

The school’s four values of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga and ako underpins all our work together.

If you are a prospective family to our school I look forward to welcoming you to our school community.

Please feel free to email me on principal@tearo.school.nz , call in, or make a time to meet with me if you would like to share your thoughts about how you or your child are experiencing the learning opportunities here at Te Aro School.

Sue Clement

Tumuaki/Principal