Renaming our School Ashley Rakahuri

This term year we have been privileged to have our Mana Whenua Education Facilitator, Diane Robinson, in school to work with both staff and students in our senior school as we go through the process of renaming both our school and spaces.

We are very honoured that Ngai Tahu have gifted the name “Rakahuri” to us and we are now in the process of formalising this with the Ministry of Education and developing our school logo/ signage to reflect the dual name of Ashley Rakahuri.

Students in Totara, our Year 7 & 8 learning space are now working on developing a school naming narrative. This tells the story of the school related to our environment. Di spoke with children and staff about the importance of naming buildings correctly and that these should reflect our local environment. This meant that we had 4 buildings around the school that needed naming...the hall, the administration area, the library and Korimako. Korimako needed to be renamed as we learnt from Di that birds are moving creatures and so buildings (that are stationary) need to be named after objects that are equally well fixed to the ground, such as trees. To find suitable names, Totara students have taken on an inquiry into a specific tree, selected from a list researched by the Manu Whenua and representative of the plants in our area. They will present their findings to the rest of the school so that we can then decide on the best name for specific buildings. It has been so exciting to have the children involved so actively in this process where they have not only had the opportunity to learn about the trees, teach others what they have learned and gain a deeper understanding of our environment, but also to actively contribute to our school narrative through the naming of spaces. We have very much appreciated the support from Ngai Tahu as part of this process.