Ako Space

03/05/2025

A PSA for all who have been so desperately wanting this for their tamariki 🌱🌱 Such great news 🌱🌱 Register your interest in full-time nature-based schooling at The Forest School at the link below!

Our Learning Approach Full-time Nature School Express your interest in our new full-time nature school in the form below. Reggio Emilia Inspired Primary School We have been working with the Charter School Agency on the charter school process, and we continue to work through the possibility of establ...

20/12/2023

Ka kite ano - it is just goodbye for now ❤️

As 2023 draws to a close, we are celebrating with untold joy our wonderful, transformative little kura today on not only the last day of the term and year - but the last day of Ako as a school.
The last couple of years have brought a number of challenges but despite being up against the odds multiple times, Ako rose with determination and remained undefeated.
More recently though those challenges evolved and reared again, becoming insurmountable hurdles which led us to make the unfortunate and heartbreaking decision that Ako is no longer sustainable and would close at the end of 2023.

We are so grateful to Sabrina, Kate, and Bronwyn for daring to be different and gifting our tamariki this opportunity in 2018 - a chance to walk a different path; to have agency in their education, to be trusted by adults, respected as people, and given autonomy over their days; to be in nature AND learning, at the SAME TIME (who knew 😉); learn critical thinking skills far beyond their age; develop their creativity; to have their own innate genius both seen and nurtured, to act with empathy and compassion; to PLAY, and grow into the passionate learners they are today, empowered with the best start to their education they could have ever asked for - ready to take on the world as tomorrow’s leaders.

We hope it is not goodbye forever, just the baton being passed to the next courageous and disruptive educators and whānau waiting in the wings. Get in touch if that is you - today, tomorrow, in 5 years.

With all of our hearts we also thank our INCREDIBLE teachers, who made Ako the extraordinary kura it is. What you have each done for the tamariki is immeasurable and will stay with them every step of their way. Claudia, Karyn, Noemi, Bex, Kayla, Isabel, Isla, Chris, Allison, Kim, Esta - thank you.
And finally to each parent in the Ako whānau who has worked tirelessly and believed. You are forever whānau.

He aha te mea nui? Māku e kii atu, he tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata

What is the most important thing in the world? Well, let me tell you, it is people, it is people, it is people ❤️

27/11/2023

Do you have a 10 -15 year old person in your world?

Our amazing friends at Conscious Kids and AUT would love your valuable input for their vital research around the wellbeing of our youth here in Tāmaki Makaurau.
They are looking for 10 - 15 year old kids who could share their experiences over the summer holidays, to help make this world the best place for the youth of this growing city.

Details here, they’d love as many young people to be involved as possible 👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏽👩🏽‍🤝‍👩🏼👨🏽‍🤝‍👨🏻

03/11/2023

Mōrena from Bunnings Wairau! ☀️ The Ako whānau are fundraising today with the brunch of champions - the best sausage sizzle on these mean Tāmaki Makaurau streets. Come and meet some of our wonderful ākonga and parents and have a chat about our amazing little bush school in the big city, as pictured here learning in nature, the classroom that has it ALL 🌱🪵📚
Sausages and all the trimmings await you, we’ll be there until 4pm 🌭

20/09/2023

Our amazing friends at Conscious Kids and AUT / Youth Wellbeing Research (and our incredible tamariki and rangatahi themselves) need your help - do you have a 10 - 15 year old child living in Tāmaki Makaurau? If so, please read! Ngā mihi nui from tomorrow’s leaders 💚🌳

Conscious Kids + AUT / Youth Wellbeing Research - Have your say!📣 - https://mailchi.mp/ef815dbc890f/thank-you-spring-holidays-2022-term-4-news-6254625

Our city is growing, and Conscious Kids + AUT researchers are keen for young people to share their experiences of these changes.

Do you have a child (10-15 years old) who lives in Tamaki Makaurau | Auckland?

We’d love to hear about their wellbeing during the school holidays! Sign up by September 27th, 2023 to share your experience!

Check this informative newsletter out for detailed information.

18/09/2023

Just came across a very topical Ako post memory, how exciting to see how far the country has come in the last almost 2 years! While there’s obviously still a way to go, Aotearoa is on the right track. Ako is so proud to be Structured Literacy’s loudest advocate, championing evidence-based learning since 2018 📚📝

Image description - a now prolific reader sitting in our beloved ngahere, embarking on a life-long love of literacy 😍

FOLLOWING AN EVIDENCE APPROACH TO TEACHING READING AND WRITING

Did you know that Ako Space is one of only a few schools in Auckland teaching literacy using a solid evidence-based approach?

We are even mentioned in this report by The New Zealand Initiative as an example of a school with very good evidence based teaching of literacy. We hosted the author, Steen Videbeck earlier this year. He visited us at the bush one morning. One of our founders and directors, Bronwyn Bayne, is also spearheading advocacy efforts for this approach (termed structured literacy) to be adopted nationwide.

👉 Read The New Zealand Initiative report here: https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/reports/reading-with-the-light-switched-on/

Like many people in the education sector, our teachers and founders believed that learning to read and write are natural processes and that by following a largely child-led (balanced literacy) approach our children would develop into proficient readers and writers. But over our four year ako journey, we continue to build our own knowledge and practice, and a couple of years ago we came across the incredible body of research on how the brain learns to read (termed the science of reading). We have embraced this and now provide explicit, systematic and cumulative phonics based instruction as the cornerstone of teaching our tamariki to read and write. We still immerse them in a print rich environment, read a wide range of books to them, and engage in lots of oral discussions. And of course lots of time for free play too. The difference is that we now know that we are ensuring ALL our children are being supported to learn to read and write in line with robust scientific evidence and we are not leaving reading to chance.

We pride ourselves on being reflective practitioners and seeking to keep abreast of the latest in cognitive psychology and educational research and practice. We strive to be evidence-based, but within a warm and nurturing small sized school community.

📞📨If you want your child to receive the very best literacy teaching, enjoy small class sizes and be part of an amazing culture of manakitanga, tākaro and whanaungatanga - all within a safe and outdoor-centric environment in the heart of Northcote - please get in touch. There are limited spaces for 2022 enrolments.

👉To find out more about the science of reading and structured literacy, we encourage you to follow Lifting Literacy Aotearoa.

20/08/2023

How incredible does this nature education workshop look?! How lucky we are to live in this amazing country being able to give our tamariki such enriching education experiences. Our kaiako will return with a wealth of knowledge and inspiration, excited to pass everything on to our little rangers 🌱🍃🎒

A free ticket for the Nature Education Network Conference is up for grabs, just like and follow our FB page, tag two friends and share this post...three simple steps and we will put you in the draw to win. Good luck!!

16/03/2023

Ako stands with every teacher in Aotearoa, without whom we would all be nothing. In the words of our incredible principal, Allison - “All tamariki deserve access to a wonderful education that meets their needs”. Let’s give our kaiako the pay they deserve and the conditions they should be able to expect; and let our tamariki soar
👩🏽‍🔬👨🏾‍💼🧑🏼‍🔧👩🏿‍🚀👩🏾‍⚖️🧑🏼‍💻