Torbay School pilots student-led Te Reo Māori

<h2>Torbay School on Auckland’s North Shore is running a pilot to get students leading te Reo M&amacr;ori in the school&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Two days a week teams of year 4-6 students lead year 3 classes in a waiata and a simple lesson on that waiata&period; They show the class how they can incorporate what they have learned into their daily class routine&period; The classroom teacher learns with the class and makes sure everything runs smoothly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;dropbox&period;com&sol;s&sol;ptp6ovxg54bj2v4&sol;Wai&percnt;20Ako&percnt;20at&percnt;20Torbay&percnt;20School&period;mp4&quest;dl&equals;0" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Click here for a video about the pilot made by a group of Torbay School students &lpar;which is released for public use&rpar;&period; <&sol;a><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The waiata and lessons are from the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;waiako&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Wai Ako<&sol;a> programme&period; Torbay School was the first school in Aotearoa New Zealand to use the programme in 2017&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The student-led te Reo M&amacr;ori pilot is the brainwave of teacher Sam Boriboun&comma; whose wife Roimata Smail created <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;waiako&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Wai Ako<&sol;a>&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I know from experience that children sometimes understand ideas better if they are explained by a peer rather than a teacher&period; Also&comma; children pick up new languages much faster than us adults&period; So I wondered if there was a way to get our students leading the school”&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After months of preparation&comma; the pilot began in June 2018 and so far has been a success&period; The students leading take their role very seriously and make sure to encourage the class&period; The class is very engaged and the teachers get the chance to model being learners too&period; There is a bit of a buzz around the school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Torbay School Principal Gary O’Brien says &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Torbay School is both excited and proud to be piloting the model involving student tutors&period; We are working hard to develop our programmes and culture around teaching te Reo and Wai Ako breaks down some of the barriers our teachers face&comma; it is a superb innovation in the area of teaching te Reo&period; Using older students as tutors has been a revelation&comma; it has spin offs for students&comma; both young and old as well as for the teachers&comma; it certainly is helping to imbed te Reo into our culture here at Torbay&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Torbay School hopes to continue the pilot in 2019 and slowly expand to make it available to other classes in the school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;