Surfing at Ahipara Beach

On Tuesday, our two senior classes, Te Puawai and Te Kauru, went to Ahipara beach to participate in the 'Have a go' surf day.  When we got there, we piled ourselves into 'Sup Bros' headquarters for a safety chat. The students were great and knew all the answers for keeping themselves safe in the water and in a rip.  They were also able to identify the parts of a surfboard.  Our instructors were great. They each had a 'superpower' which they shared with the students. These ranged from being able to share their 'stoke', punching sharks, lightning-fast swimming and more.

Top and bottom left: Te Kauru and Te Puawai crammed in the Surf Bro's headquarters.
Both right: Our surf instructors sharing their superpowers.

After our safety briefing, our classes were split into three groups. We rotated around three stations for the day; snacks and games at headquarters, games on the beach and surfing.

On the beach we played frisbee, bat down and the hose game. Some students were building sandcastles and others were being buried. 

Top left - Oscar, right - Gemini
Bottom left - June, right - Oscar

Top left - Frano, right - Manaia
Bottom left - Group 2, right - Tristan

A huge thank you to our lovely whanau who are always there to support our outdoor excursions. Without our parents, we would not be able to provide our students were experiences outside of the classroom. 

A shout out to our very patient, amazing surfing superheroes. They were able to help all our students get up on their boards and achieve that feeling of 'stoke'. Thank you!

Squawk Squad Week 5: Marine Week

This week we have been learning all about our Marine Environment and how bad plastics are for them. In an effort to help our marine environment, each student from Te Kauru had to collect at least 1 piece of plastic each day.  They had to find this out in their surrounding environment, either on the road, in town, or around the school.



The students together decided the shape they would like their sculpture to form. Our class decided to make a seal.  Bailey and Manaia were in charge or drawing the seal, while Aria helped Whaea Sharlz wash all the plastics.

Once everything was reading, everyone had a turn at glueing their plastics onto our seal.  Doesn't it look absolutely amazing? This is how much plastics we have saved from entering our oceans this week alone!



Do you think you can help us save our oceans?

Beach Education Day @ Ahipara Surf Rescue

Beach Education Day @ Ahipara Surf Rescue

On Tuesday, Te Kauru Students attended Beach Educations session which is a full day surf safety course delivered at the beach by surf lifeguards. Beach Ed is age-appropriate learning for school year levels 1-8.

The day was organised into modules. Below the modules are set out into different headings.

Tour of club

The first activity was to have a tour of the club. We got to touch all of their equipment and ask lots of  questions.  We learnt about the different equipment they use for saving lives, including the use of the RB boats, jet-skis, paddle boards and rescue tubes. The lifeguards explained that quite often, paddle boards are faster to respond compared with the RB boats or the jet-skis. This is because it takes a while to prep the motorized equipment for rescues, where the paddle boards are quick and easy to get into the water.

Beach Safety

Next we learnt all about beach safety, how to identify a rip, keeping ourselves safe in the sun and they showed us their first aid kit. Each life guard needs to be able to perform first aid.

We even played a game to help us remember the 'Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap, Slide' rules of being sunsmart.

Water Activities

The next module was by far to the most exciting. First we had to make sure that everyone was safe on the beach, but drawing a large square in the sand. Everyone had to stay in the square. We used all our parent helpers to do the same in the water. This was to ensure that everyone was visible in the water, and didn't go to deep.

In the water, the students experienced mock rescues. The students were in pairs, and had to save their friend. Students had to make sure that they clipped the flotation device around the buddy, and ensure the strap was around their own shoulder before swimming back to shore.

A HUGE thank you to Liam, Val, Emma, Ariana - our very helpful and supportive life guards.