Te whakarite i tō tamaiti mō te uru atu ki te kura - Preparing your child for kura

Kia eke au ki ōku taumata
So that i might reach my full potential

Starting kura can be a major change for children – and their whānau. Here are some tips to help ensure your child has the best possible start at kura:

• talk with your child about school a couple of months before they’re due to start – help them get excited about starting this next phase of life!
• talk with them about the other children they know that already go to the kura – if they don’t know any one yet, tell them that kura is going to be a great opportunity for them to make a whole lot of new friends
• point the kura out to your child every time you drive by or walk past it – encourage your child to think of it as ‘their’ kura
• take your child up to the kura at weekends or after kōhanga to have a look around – let them have a play on the playground and look through the windows at the pictures on the walls and other children’s work
• if your child knows children already at the kura, consider inviting one or two of them around to play so your child will have some friends at kura when they start
• make sure your child can go to the toilet on his/her own and take his/her shoes on and off without help
• get in contact early with local kura so that you become familiar with the kura programmes and expectations.

“My partner and i have made a commitment to raising our girls with te reo Māori because it’s part of who they are. They went to kōhanga reo, so enrolling them in a kura Māori seemed a natural step from there. But we know we have to make the effort at home too. Before korihimihiata started school, we started making 6pm-8pm every night a time when we would only speak Māori. She’s been at kura for six months now and we’ve just had her first school report. She’s getting really confident with her reo and we’re really happy with the progress she is making.” Danessa Hill