Maori 'haka' inspires Cornish school to achieve
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Inspiration for recognition of the achievement of talented pupils at a comprehensive school in Cornwall came from the other side of the world: the sight of boys from New Zealand performing the haka in morning assembly.
Inspiration for recognition of the achievement of talented pupils at a comprehensive school in Cornwall came from the other side of the world: the sight of boys from New Zealand performing the haka in morning assembly.
Penair School in Truro, a 1,200-pupil, 11-to-16 school, is twinned with Rotorua Boys' High School. Staff from the UK school visited their new twin institution, which had just won an inter-school golf competition.
The boys who had taken part in the competition began by telling their classmates what had happened and then - one by one - quite spontaneously went into a celebratory performance of the haka, a traditional indigenous war dance.
"We are taking a leaf out of the Maori book. They recognise achievement: it was awe-inspiring and had a tremendous effect on our staff," said the head teacher, Barbara Vann.
"It showed that you could celebrate achievement without feeling that in any way it is reprehensible. We are still trying to get away from the 'boff' syndrome [highly able pupils suffering abuse from classmates] that there was some some years ago. There was quite a lot of 'boff' talk but now, I think, we can praise our colleagues."
The link with New Zealand was just one of the reasons that Penair has become one of 18 schools in the UK to be chosen as "ambassadors" for the drive to improve education for gifted and talented youngsters.
"We didn't rush forward for this," Mrs Vann said. "It was others that identified us and asked us if we would be willing to be involved. What we're doing is only what we thought we ought to be doing."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments