Last year, we spent time consulting on our school values. We received feedback that was categorised and ranked for most popular values statements. You can read the feedback and how our new values fit into life at Twizel Area School.


Category - Togetherness

1. Working as a team
2. Extending and receiving support
3.= Showing compassion
3.= Developing a sense of community


Category - Guardianship

1. Respect
2. Care for self and others
3. Considering your impact on the environment


Category - Self

1. Taking opportunities
2. Finding your passion
3.= Perseverance
3.=Resilience


Category - Care for Others

1. Kindness
2.= Trustworthiness
2.= Thoughtfulness


Category - Leadership

1. Respect
2. Integrity
3. Honesty


The Board and Senior Leadership team then considered these responses and sought feedback from external sources to create our new vision, mission and values. This forms the front page of our Strategic Plan for 2022-2024. The full Strategic Plan will be available publically once approved by the Ministry, but the front page showing the core information can be seen here.


Our new values are confirmed as:

Whānaukataka - Kinship
Awhinataka - Nurture
Kaitiakitaka - Guardianship
Ārahi - Leadership


In the case of Awhinataka - Nurture, we have specifically chosen this English word as it relates to our local environment, the Twizel River, Whakatipu  - in English, Whakatipu means to nurture.

Another less familiar work may be ārahi - again, with respect to our setting, we have chosen this word to represent leadership as it means ‘to herald, the first star in the night sky’ - isn’t that something to aspire to? 

We hope that our final product has encapsulated the concepts brought forward by our community and that we can now move forward to support our learners on our ‘WAKA’.

Waka