OUR STORY

The Journey towards our Red Hill School Way of Being

School Context:

Red Hill School was built in 1978 as a series of “open plan” structures with a concept of collaboration planned from the outset. It was made with asbestos based fibre panels that over time cracked in all spaces and released dust particles into the soil. (The cracking became obvious from 2010-2011 and became a strong concern from then on.)  The buildings were shifting off their foundations and the movement had caused the windows to warp. The windows had to be glued and screwed shut making the spaces hot in the Summer and freezing in the Winter. (It was found that there was no insulation within the walls of the buildings during the demolition.) The classrooms were not watertight - water ran through the middle of the spaces when it rained at key beam joins throughout the spaces. The series of issues instigated a discussion about a rebuild of the school from 2012.

Between 2012-2017 viability scans were requested in order to make a decision regarding whether a school was necessary in the area. During this time the school had a falling roll and the demolition of the existing school began. The school site was put on pause until a decision could be made about whether to rebuild.

In 2017 there was a change of the entire Leadership Team including the Principal while the school was in temporary accommodation. The newly established Leadership Team and staff recognised the need for a new vision and direction for the school and set about making changes. The roll began to steadily grow again and in 2018 the rebuild began.

The staff, whanau and students fought hard as a community to have the rebuild come to life and were staunch in their desire to maintain the authentic “shared learning community” concept that had operated for Whanau since the School opened.  

We believe that life is meant to be done together and we have a shared responsibility to invest in our 

collective future. The rebuild has allowed us to make this happen.

We recognise that we are a school and our core business is to educate, however, we truly embrace the holistic approach to being a lifelong learner. We have some spaces that some may see as unorthodox but these are directly responsive to the needs of the community that we serve.  Our community now has genuine equity at the gate with a safe and secure oasis to belong (home). Our school has risen from the ashes and provides the grounding and the strong sense of calm needed for its people.

We believe our spaces breathe aroha and draw aroha to it

The Red Hill Way of Being

Red Hill School is an eclectic school and it is extremely difficult to define our Red Hill way of being. It is crucial that we retain the pieces of the past to support continued growth into the future and therefore we believe that the vision and direction for our way of working will be an ongoing fluid, flexible and dynamic pathway to meet the needs of the diverse community 

that we serve.

KOTAHITANGA

Kotahitanga is the concept of togetherness and underpins the philosophy we hold within the school. We are a small community however we are unified, and it’s important to lift each other up. Kotahitanga is identifying as one – sharing the earth, extending our āwhina (support) to everyone, and receiving the same back.

Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora a mua 

Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead 

This whakatauki also speaks to the importance of working together.

It acknowledges and values the importance of both the leader and the followers for both are essential and co-dependent.

THE CORE

At the core of our kaupapa sits aspects of the whare tapa wha model - (Mason Durie)

We believe our students need to feel the balance of these in order to learn - if one of these four things are causing them distress then they are not in a position to engage in learning. Our focus is on students feeling the balance so that they can learn. 

Education is a conversation rather than a lecture