Our Kura
Our kura has a close connection to our whenua. Our kaiako and our ākonga connect with te taiao in our kura, our community and beyond in many ways to enhance learning, for our well being and to protect and sustain our place for future Grovetown School kids.
Our Pepeha
Our kaiako and ākonga practice and share their pepeha regularly in our kura.
The pepeha of our ākonga grow with our tamariki as they get older. We begin with our 5 year olds sharing their name and the name of their whaea and matua.
Our older ākonga are supported to grow their pepeha as they gain a sense of their unique identity.
Our Whole School Pepeha
Ko Tapuae-o-Uenuku te maunga
Ko Wairau te awa
Ko Grovetown toku kura
Tihei mauri ora
Our Karakia
Our karakia are used to begin and end our time together both as a whole school and also in our individual classes.
Our places of significance
Our school site is rich with places that are special or historically significant to us.
Our ANZAC Memorial
Since about 1920, our School has had a war memorial in its grounds. When the new school was built on Vickerman Street, the same tradition was continued, initially with a grove of kowhai trees planted and later in 1950 when work was undertaken to build the memorial that stands today. This cenotaph lists those who died in the two World Wars on two marble panels.
Our Time capsule
Our time capsule was opened, added to and resealed in 2016 at our 150th Jubilee. We discovered many interesting relics of the past and buried letters and special items from our lives in 2016.
Our Five kowhai trees
In 2016 five kowhai trees were planted along the front fence to replace the original grove of kowhai trees that were planted in 1950 to honour the fallen Soldiers of the Grovetown Community. Unfortunately we have had little success with the survival of our kowhai as these tress did not survive. In 2023 we replanted the five kowhai on the south side of our front field beside the path at the entrance of our school, where they are thriving now.
Our Iwi trees
Our three iwi gifted our kura native rakau during our 150th Jubilee celebrations on the 23rd October 2016:
Rangitāne - Pohutukawa
Ngāti Toa Rangatira - Kowahi
Ngāti Rārua - Matai
Grovetown school also planted a Kahikatea to celebrate our 150th Jubilee on this day.
Our Bees and honey
2014 was the "year of the bees". Our children were supported by local bee keepers to learn about the vital role bee play in the sustainability of growing food on our planet. We have cared for two our bee hives in our kura every since. Our bees make us honey that we collect each year with the support of local bee keepers. We gift a jar of our honey when a student or staff member joins our kura and special manuhiri who visit our school.
Our Pool
Our pool has always be a welcomed place to cool off in our summer terms. Our pool is used to teach our tamariki to swim and by our Grovetown community. The 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake damaged our pool and our Parent Support Group has passionately raised money over many years to repair our pool.
Our forest
Our forest has always been a part a special part of our school. As our school roll grew the south side of our forest became too small for our children and so in 2017 we planted the north end of our forest with local native rakau. Our "new forest" is a favourite place to play and is greatly love by all of our ākonga.
Our Trapping Line
Our Waihi class developed a rat trap line in our kura during 2021 as part of their science Inquiry. The children collected kowhai seeds from our forest and designed packaging and labels for our seeds. The children sold our seeds to whanau at the front gate and raised money to buy our rat traps.
Our bike track
Our bike track was designed by our ākonga in 2015 and was dug and created by our whanau during working bees. In 2021 Marlborough Lines removed our Macrocarpa hedge at the north end of our school and funded the bike track extension, which took elements from the Osprey children's designs such as the bridge, the bike seesaw and the native rakau.
Our Edible Garden
Our school participates in the "Kid's Edible Gardens programme" run by the the Marlborough district Council. This programmes underpinning theme is sustainability and our children learn to grow, prepare, cook and eat food grown on our whenua. Our school has a wide range of fruit trees, berries and nuts which we harvest and eat throughout the seasons. We even grew our own grapes for our "Jubilee wine" in 2016.
Our Buddy Benches
Our buddy benches were design and built by the Osprey class in 2016. The children wanted to create a safe place for everyone to go if they were looking for a friend to play with. The Osprey children chose to build two buddy benches ,which were carefully designed to particular measurements, to ensure both our smallest 5 year old and our biggest 11 year old would be able to sit comfortably on a bench.
Our Hobbit hut
Our hobbit hut design began with the Osprey class in 2018 and was completed, after many set backs, by the Waverley class in 2020. The hobbit hut is a place to play and imagine during break times.
Our Sandpits
The sandpit was designed and created by the Opawa class in 2016. The children researched and carefully selected which sand would be the best. Golden Bay sand was chosen as the best choice for it colour and quality. The sandpit is a popular place to place at our kura and in 2021 we built another sandpit just for our 5 year olds.
Our Trampoline
Our ākonga are the only tamariki in Blenheim that have an in ground trampoline. Due to tour whenua once being a swamp, we had to build a "mound" to place our trampoline in the ground, and in the winter months it is often filled with ground water.
Our Library
Our library is well oved and popular place for our tamariki to go, especially in our colder winter months. Our library is open at lunchtime and is managed by our Year 4-6 Librarians who undergo an application process and are specially trained in their role.
Our bell
Our school has an original style bell that was donated during our 150th Jubilee in 2016 by Eldred and Colin Boyce in memory of George and Kate Boyce. Our children greatly enjoy being given the responsibility of ringing the bell at the end of morning tea and lunch time.
Our School Logo
Our school logo is based on an original idea by Nick Johnson,
a Grovetown School pupil from 1998-2004. It is designed to show…
“Growth and never ending learning.”
The colours were chosen to show the importance of the environment, especially Grovetown Lagoon and Big Bush (as Grovetown area was once known).
A flax plant was chosen because of the significance of flax in the history of Grovetown.
The Grovetown Lagoon is represented by the white spiral.
The koru shape is to represent the importance of Māori and to show a ‘G’ for Grovetown
Our classroom names
Our classrooms are named after historic vessels that have navigated the waters of Waiharakeke.
Opawa
In March 1897 Eckford's "Opawa" was on the Wiarua river and had the longest record of service until 1912, when Eckfords purchased the "Wairau".
Waihi
The SS Waihi, a sturdy little craft of 92 tons, capable of carrying 18 passengers and 100 tons of cargo made her first voyage to Blenheim on 6 March 1883. She finished her active days of service in Gisborne in 1914.
Osprey
In 1877 there was a tug built to tow the larger schooners up the river. She was a barge, fitted with an incredibly noisy engine which, they say, could be heard all over the plain. She was named the "Osprey" but, because of her infernal racket, was called the "Puffing Billy".
Waverley
The Waverley began life in in 1883, built in Auckland by Bailey and Seager for the Patea Steam Shipping Company, however only remained with this initial owner until 1886 when the vessel was purchased by the Anchor Steam Shipping Company of Nelson, in whose ownership she served the greater part of her working life, with regular voyages from Wellington to Nelson, then Greymouth and Westport. The final resting place of the Waverley is in the mud on the shore of one of the channels in the Wairau lagoons, swept there unintentionally by flood waters and abandoned.
Our Po Whenua
To commemorate our 150th Jubilee Poura Mackie collaborated with our tamariki
to design our po whenua. Poura brought the spirit of Māui alive in the purakau of Māui that he shared with our tamariki. Māui was welcomed to our kura with a dawn service in 2016.
Māui tikitiki o Taranga stands proud at our gate reminding our tamariki to "be like Māui.
innovative
brave
resourceful
life long learners
Our 150th Jubilee
In 2016 we welcomed our community, past students, teachers and whanau to celebrate our 150th Jubilee. It was a special celebration including many precious moments where past and present students came together to share their stories of being a Grovetown School kid.
Tuia Mural
Tuia - our Grovetown School mural shares the story of our school in 2024.
Tuia ki runga, Unite from above,
Tuia ki raro, Unite from below,
Tuia ki waho, Unite from outside,
Tuia ki roto, Unite from within,
Tuia ki te here tangata, Unite to connect people,
Ka rongo te pō, The night hears,
Ka rongo te Ao, The day hears, the world hears
Haumi e, hui e, Tāike E. Join all, bind all, Let it be done!
In the middle of Tuia we can see our Grovetown school logo. Above this are our school values growing in the whenua of our kura. The woven harakeke represent weaving all of our learning together as we grow. Above the harakeke are our awa Te Wairau and our maunga Tapuae O Uenuku. Our Grovetown lagoon is represented by the blue koru that comes from the Wairau and you can see Otamawaho Maori island in the middle of the lagoon.
The six brown koru represent our akonga. The three long koru are our junior tamariki who blow into our school wild and free like tawhirimatea.(year 1 at the top, year 2 in the middle and year 3 at the bottom) The other three koru are our senior tamariki growing up into the world and rising to their challenges.(Year 6 top, year 5 middle, year 4 bottom). The green koru on our maunga represents our whanau, our tipuna and our ancestors who watch over us and protect us.
In the sky you can see Nga whetu O Matariki the stars of Matariki and our atua Maui with his hook. Our four Whanau Kotahi groups are represented in the Kahikatea trees (top left corner), Matai branch (top right corner), the Kowhai branch (bottom left) and Pohutukawa blossom (bottom right). Our tui can be seen in our ngahere and often our piwakawaka come inside our classes for a visit.
The poppy represent our WW1 and WW2 Grovetown soldiers named on our memorial who fought for our freedom.
The seigaiai (blue wave pattern) and the sakura (cherry blossom) represent our akonga and their whanau from Japan. The brown, white and black ngatu (tapa) represent our akonga and their whanau from Tonga. The kotuku is the symbol of our iwi Rangitāne. The sun pattern is a modern take on the filipino flag which represents our akonga and their whanau from the Philippines. The blue and white pattern traditional Czech pattern which represents our akonga and their whanau from the Czech Republic.
