Waitara East School

Waitara East School Welcome to Waitara East School. We believe that the tamariki at our Kura are the heart of everything we do.

We are a bilingual school offering level 2 Te Reo immersion as well as
English medium classes.

Today we had a special visit from Dietitian Kendall North and Chere Bailey from The Wild Pear Kitchen, who delivered cop...
31/08/2026

Today we had a special visit from Dietitian Kendall North and Chere Bailey from The Wild Pear Kitchen, who delivered copies of Kendall’s beautiful book: Kai’s Big Food Discovery: How Food Helps Every Part of Us!

~ Join Kai the Kiwi and Tiki the Tūī on an adventure to learn how food gives us energy to play, helps our brains think clearly, supports our emotions and connects us with each other. A perfect fit for our tamariki learning about kai and covering all areas of Te Whare Tapa Whā! ~

A huge thank you to Chere and Chesney (Wild Pear Kitchen) for sponsoring these books for our kura, and to Kendall for sharing your mahi with us. Your generosity means our tamariki can keep learning, questioning and building a positive relationship with food.

Nō reira, e mihi ana ki a kōrua!

Congratulations to our Week 6 Mana Focus and Principal Award winners. Well done to you all!
28/08/2026

Congratulations to our Week 6 Mana Focus and Principal Award winners. Well done to you all!

28/08/2026

If you were at Waitara East today, you would’ve needed your Sunnies! It was a very bright sea of yellow in support of Daffodil Day and the Cancer Society of New Zealand.

Tamariki rocked their tutu’s, ribbon’s, lei’s and face paint with bright smiles to match!

Thank you to our tamariki and whānau for your very kind koha. Together we raised $200 for the Cancer Society! 💛🌼🌻

27/08/2026

He Pōkai Tīeke syndicate visited Puke Ariki and Govett Brewster on Wednesday. They checked out the Reef Alive exhibit and the Nature Listening-Miharo exhibit. Both sessions were loosely focused on our current work around being Kaitiaki of our Awa - but widened the scope to look at our responsibilities for sustaining clean waterways and oceans, as well as protecting wildlife from predators.

In the Nature Listening workshop our tamariki explored sound as a messenger, combining careful listening with imagination to capture sound through hands-on mark making. Following, a sensory rich introduction to selected artworks from Direct Bodily Empathy – Sound, Signal, Feedback, our tamariki created their own response through gestures, and symbols as they investigated how to give te taiao a voice.

In the learning centre, tamariki transformed their ideas into a montage using rau (leaf) and rākau rubbed textures, along with sound marks that show which creatures are allowed or not allowed inside a predator-proof fenced ngahere. We learned that this process works towards bringing our ancient forests back to life.

With Reef Alive, we had an amazing opportunity to use VR headsets to explore the ocean reef. That was amazing.
Whaea Tash created lessons that helped us to fully understand that we can’t disrupt a lifecycle without devastating effects.

26/08/2026

This week with Amy, tamariki kicked off their Maara session by planting Sunflower Seeds. Another pot to grow alongside their beans. We noticed the Shammah’s bean is in the lead by 3mm!

We picked some Calendula and Marigold flowers and a few oranges that had dropped on the ground. We all sampled fresh picked peas which resulted in quite a few screwed up faces!

The highlight of this week was tasting a delicious Cauliflower Soup that Amy had whipped up with the Cauli from last weeks harvest! The results of the taste test were surprising with just a couple of tamariki not quite enjoying the taste! A few went back for seconds and even thirds! Thanks Amy!

Waitara Foodbank - Pataka Kai

Thanks to the Paper4trees programme with EERST, our recycling efforts have turned into native plants for our Kura! 🌱🌿A s...
24/08/2026

Thanks to the Paper4trees programme with EERST, our recycling efforts have turned into native plants for our Kura! 🌱🌿

A special thank you to our sponsors Toi Foundation and OMV and to Te Kahuri Nursery for growing and delivering these beautiful trees with so much care.

We already have the perfect spot awaiting and tamariki will be getting stuck in with planting soon! Watch this space!

💛🌼 Daffodil Day 🌼💛
24/08/2026

💛🌼 Daffodil Day 🌼💛

Here are our amazing Week 5 Mana Focus and Principal Award recipients. Ka pai koutou!
24/08/2026

Here are our amazing Week 5 Mana Focus and Principal Award recipients. Ka pai koutou!

TE HUIHUINGA O NGĀ TĀTARAKIHIHere is everything you need to know about Tātarakihi this year being held at The Hub in Hāw...
19/08/2026

TE HUIHUINGA O NGĀ TĀTARAKIHI
Here is everything you need to know about Tātarakihi this year being held at The Hub in Hāwera on FRIDAY SEPTEMBER the 11th

Our competition group Te Kāhui o ngā Mātā Raukura are performing at 12.00pm followed by our Juniors Te Māta Mokopuna at 1.30pm.

If you can make it down there it will be well worth it and our Kapa Haka Roopu will appreciate your support 😊

19/08/2026

Today in the Maara was all about putting mauri back into our very sad looking compost.

Our black bins were very dry with no aeration or moisture so we tipped them out to make a big bed of compost.

We layered cardboard, shredded paper, vegetation and added lots of water. With a nice mixture of greens and brown we can create a nutrient dense soil full of mauri, ready to add to our garden beds later on.

We checked our peas and were lucky to find a few small ones to taste test. As for our bean growth, Shammah is winning the race by a smidgen.

After two weeks since our last maara session, a cauliflower had taken off and was ready to pick…. cooking and tasting session to come!

Our day ended with a song and cake for one in celebration of Amy’s special day! Happy Birthday Amy! Waitara Foodbank - Pataka Kai

Address

37 Richmond Street
Waitara
4320

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 3pm
Tuesday 9am - 3pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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