- Hon David Seymour
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced Te Kura Awhitu, sponsored by the Tūhoe Charitable Trust, will open by Term 2 2026 as a charter school.
"Every child deserves the opportunity to learn and grow in ways which are more specific to their needs. Today's announcement demonstrates the innovation enabled by the charter school model," Mr Seymour says.
"Tūhoe and the Crown stood apart for generations. Today's announcement delivers on an important commitment to investigate a charter school for Tūhoe based learning that was made in 2013 as part of the reset of the Crown-Tūhoe relationship.
"Te Kura Awhitu will prepare its students for modern life from traditional roots. Autonomy is important to Tūhoe, and the charter school model enables this. It means Tūhoe can embed their tikanga, language, values, environment, and cultural identity into the curriculum. This marks a significant step forward in the Crown-Tūhoe relationship.
"The school will offer a full Māori immersion education. The curriculum is based on the philosophy and guiding principles drawn from the Te Urewera environment.
"The school will have the use of Te Urewera as a classroom, to learn practically about natural sciences, biodiversity, and geography in a way that incorporates Tūhoe traditions and knowledge: learning about environmental change, waterways management and whakapapa.
"NCEA achievement standards will be used for learning. Natural science learning will be taught against achievement standards in biology, environmental studies or agriculture. A learning module on water restoration, for example, may earn credits in sustainability, science and history," Mr Seymour says.
"Charter schools show education can be different if we let communities bring their ideas to the table.
"These schools have more flexibility in return for strictly measured results.
"The charter school equation is: the same funding as state schools, plus greater flexibility plus stricter accountability for results, equals student success.
"There are more ideas in the communities of New Zealand than there are in the Government. That's why we open ideas to the wider community, then apply strict performance standards to the best ones.
"It will join the charter schools announced in the last year which will open in 2026. This takes the total number of charter schools to 19. We expect more new charter schools to be announced before the end of the year, along with the first state schools to convert.
"I want to thank the Charter School Agency and Authorisation Board for the work they have done getting charters open. They considered 52 applicants for new charter schools. They tell me this round the choices were very difficult.
"This is just the beginning. I hope to see many more new charter schools opening, and state and state-integrated schools converting to become charter schools."
