Bilingual Classes

At Te Papapa School we value bilingual education. Bilingual education is most effective when families, the school and the wider community see it as good for students to learn a second language and to become fluent in two languages.

This is called an “additive” approach because students are “adding” a second language rather than replacing one language with another. Research shows that additive approaches are very effective educationally and result in students becoming bilingual as well as biliterate – being able to read and write in two languages.

The research also highlights that becoming biliterate is the key to academic success. Students who are biliterate are more likely to succeed academically, they also end up knowing two languages rather than just one.

Te Purapura is a Level 3 bilingual Māori enrichment class of year 1-3 learners, where the children are taught in Māori for between 21% and 50% of the time. The curriculum taught is the New Zealand Curriculum with an in-depth focus on Tikanga Māori, Te Reo Māori and Te Ao Māori focused inquiry learning.

In addition, we will soon be upgrading Rooms 1 and 2 to create an innovative learning environment for bilingual Māori education at Te Papapa School.

Le Manumea our bilingual Sāmoan class takes learners from year 4-8. The curriculum taught is the New Zealand Curriculum with a strong focus on conversational Gagana Samoa and Fa’asamoa.