Pasifika initiatives

TESOL | Home–School Partnership | Stories from schools

Here are summaries of the Ministry-funded initiatives that address the particular needs of schools and communities where there are significant numbers of Pasifika students.

The Ministry is offering scholarships for tuition fees to help up to 150 teachers a year gain papers towards a TESOL qualification. Trained ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teachers working in mainstream classrooms or as specialists in primary and secondary schools provide critical intervention for those Pasifika students who may be struggling to develop literacy in English. Under the scholarship scheme, each teacher is funded for four papers, including course fees and $100 for books per annum, for two years.

For more information, email: literacynumeracy@tki.org.nz

The Home–School Partnership programme is part of the Government's national Literacy and Numeracy Strategy

Rosebank School
Read the story of how this large primary school, with approximately 60 percent Pasifika students, involved parents as co-leaders in the team to deliver the key literacy messages. The issue for Rosebank School was to provide extra assistance for students from different language groups and those who had experienced multiple changes of school. The Pasifika Home–School Partnership proved a great success in building confidence among families, and acted as an incentive to continue to raise standards across the whole school.

Rotorua Primary School
Rotorua Primary School was one of a group of nine schools which participated in a 1998–99 project that was based on extensive research about enhancing social and cultural relationships between home and school, particularly to support children's acquisition of literacy.