Te Whiti-O-Rongomai Biography

Te Whiti-O-Rongomai

Te Whiti was a great leader and an inspiring man who was born in 1830 at Ngamotu, Taranaki. His father was named Hone and his fathers cousin, Tohukakahi was a minor chief. His mother was called Rangiawau, daughter of Te Whetu. Te Whiti was born during the Musket wars and lived peacefully on the coast near Parihaka, until 1865 when Maori troops burnt his village down. The next year he moved inland to Parihaka. He was educated at Reimenschneiders Mission School and was very good at Bible studies. After he left school, he set up a flour mill at Warea and was identified as a possible spiritual teacher.

By 1870 Parihaka (where Te Whiti lived) became the biggest village in the country. Later on in 1879 Europeans invaded the land and by 1881 they were punishing people unfairly and taking the Maori land. Te Whiti and Tohu were leaders of the Parihaka movement and protested peacefully. The people of Parihaka challenged the Europeans because the land was taken unfairly. Te Whiti was a spiritual man who preached Christian beliefs. In 1881 Te Whiti got sent to prison in the South Island. While he was there, he learnt how to use European technology. He began to play mind games on the prison guards by putting salt in their pudding and sugar in their soup to try and make them doubt their sanity. Te Whiti was also the first person to speak on the telephone at a Christchurch railway.

Te Whiti was released from prison in 1888 shortly after his wife died, however he was not able to attend her funeral. Once Te Whiti and Tohu had arrived back to Parihaka, they started to rebuild the village. They mixed the Maori and European style into the village and they both lived in Parihaka until their deaths.  

Sadly, Te Whiti died of old age on the 22 of November 1907. When he was buried, many valuables were buried with him. His body was not placed inside a coffin because earlier he had said that everyone should be buried without a coffin. It is said that everyone around the country was very sad that day and the whole of Parihaka had become much more quiet after his death.

Te Whiti was a very inspirational and peaceful man who always stood up for what he believed in. He inspires a lot of people throughout New Zealand and is now known for being an amazing person and a great leader. 


By Hailey.

Term 1 Goals

My Goals For Term 2 

Literacy- I need to work on having more complex punctuation in my writing. I will do this by checking over my work more to check I have used it.

General- I need to work on my reading comprehension, understanding the text that I am reading. I will do this by reading more at home and talking about what I have read.

Maths- I need to work on answering times tables straight away. I will do this by going on mathletics often and trying to increase my score.

Cecilia Russel Art

This is my Cecilia Russel art.

I Think my art work is cool because I like the blending of the colours in the sunset.

Next time I would try a different theme.

My I am :)

Letter to the board for new desks

Room 22

Muritai Road

Eastbourne

Dear Board of Trustees and Mr Bird,

I am a member of Room 22 and have noticed that the desks are at poor quality. I am writing this letter to request new desks for our class. These are my reasons why.

Firstly, when a new pupil walks into Muritai School, they expect the class rooms to be at high quality so that they are in a good learning environment. With new desks, the students will be more convinced that Muritai School is a great place to learn. 

Secondly, when we have tote trays all crammed up at the back of the class room, its always a stampede getting to your tote tray. If we had desks we could gather our stationary in a peaceful and quiet manner without disrupting any other members of the class, which means everybody is concentrated and dedicated to doing their work.

Also, the desks we have now has graffiti,  they are scratched on and have parts that are carved into, therefore, I feel uncomfortable learning in the Room 22 current environment. So do other people in our class.

Currently we have four different types of learning areas in our class and so the desks are very mismatched. When people walk into our class, we want them to have a good first impression. All of the other classes on the other side of the road have new desks from Year 3 and up, surely we deserve the same because we are bigger and need more working space. 

Thankyou for reading this letter, now that you know why we need new desks in Room 22 we  hope that you will strongly consider this for us. It will create a better learning environment for the school.

Yours sincerely,

Hailey Griffiths 

Biography :D Lady Gaga :)

Lady Gaga

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is known better by her pop star stage name - Lady Gaga. Gaga was born on March 28,1986 in Manhattan, New York to parents Joseph and Cynthia Germanotta.

Descending from her Italian and French - Canadian roots, Gaga is the eldest of two children, her sister Natili, was born in 1992. Despite her upbringing in the family home, Gaga stressed that she did not come from a wealthy background stating that both parents had worked for everything to get where they are now.

From age 11 Gaga (who was raised Roman Catholic) attended the convent of the Sacred Heart a private all-girls Roman Catholic school in Manhattan. She described her academic life ‘very dedicated, very disciplined but also a bit insecure’. Singing was number one, recalled a former high school class mate. Gaga taught herself the piano at the age of 4 and went on to write her first piano ballad at 13. Her passion for musical theatre brought her lead roles in high school productions.

When her time at the Convent of the Sacred Heart came to an end, her mother encouraged her to apply for the Collaborative Arts Project 21, a musical theatre training conservatory at New York University’s Tisch school of the arts. After becoming one of the 20 students to gain early admission, she eventually lived in a New York University dorm by the age of 17.

Gaga withdrew from the Arts Project. She decided to focus on her musical career. Her Father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re - enroll at Tisch if unsuccessful.

By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles in order to work extensively with her record label to complete her debut album. The Fame was first released on August 19 2008 to radio play.

We believe that Lady Gaga is a very inspiring person because she likes to be herself by creating dresses that express her individuality.

By Caela Davy and Hailey Griffiths