New college opening in Manukau | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

Two Otara schools are merging to become a new secondary college.

Clover Park Middle School and Te Whanau o Tupuranga, which currently share a campus, will become Kia Aroha College, offering bilingual education in Maori, Samoan, Tongan and Cook Islands Maori, from Year 7 to Year 13.

Principal Ann Milne says "This is an exciting development for our community and the realisation of a dream for a large group of Pasifika parents who asked the board of trustees in 2007 to find ways to enable their older children to learn bilingually in the own language and English beyond Year 10."

Clover Park Middle School was established as an intermediate school in 1981 and changed status to become a Year 7 to 10 middle school in 1995.

Te Whanau o Tupuranga, originally the Maori bilingual unit within Clover Park, opened as a Maori bilingual secondary school, the first of its kind in the country, in 2006.

Kia Aroha College will have two strands or schools within its new structure. Both will enable students to be taught curriculum subjects in their own languages and English. Te Whanau o Tupuranga will continue to be the centre for Maori education. The Clover Park Middle School name will be replaced with the name Fanau Pasifika - the centre for Samoan, Tongan and Cook Islands education.

Kia Aroha College will be the only state secondary school in Manukau to take students from Year 7 level, and the only Maori and Pasifika bilingual secondary school in the country.

The need for culturally responsive approaches to learning are well known internationally and becoming popular in New Zealand where the Ministry of Education is currently implementing a national project to develop culturally responsive leadership in schools.

However, the number of students learning Pasifika languages nationally is actually declining, with only five secondary schools in the country offering a Pasifika language option, as a separate subject. None of these is in Manukau, in spite of the fact that the number of Pasifika students is concentrated in South Auckland, and is growing. Language loss in these communities is a significant issue, which will be exacerbated as more and more Pasifika children are born in New Zealand.

In 2010 the positive Education Review Office report on Clover Park Middle School noted the school's distinctive the school's curriculum design. "It focuses on developing what the school calls 'the warrior scholar' - a student who confidently understands and uses their cultural knowledge, heritage language, values and beliefs to achieve their potential."

This goal for young people to have strength in their own language and cultural identity, as well as high academic outcomes, is a feature of both the existing schools and will continue to be the focus of Kia Aroha College.

The new school will open on February 1, 2011. It is currently enrolling students for 2011 at all levels. There is no enrolment zone and all applications for enrolment are welcome.

For more info, see www.cloverparktupuranga.school.nz