ACES Weekly Buzz

Tena koutou katoa, whanau caregivers and external providers,

This week, both campuses will celebrate Pink Shirt Day 2025 and we go behind the scenes with Hayward to look at what's planned around this important kaupapa.

Next week on Wednesday, we’re also excited to welcome new students and their Whanau to ACES on both campuses! There’ll be a special Induction Day, so no regular timetable for other students. Instead ACES students will work on "self-directed learning" tasks at home. We can’t wait to meet our new ACES ākonga and welcome them into our learning community!

This week in Part 2 of our focus on our Project Based Learning programme, we zoom in on our students working on a cool project with "Zero Waste Tamaki Hub" and EOTC (Education outside the classroom)! Through hands-on learning and connecting to a well established Social Enterprise in our community, the learnings will help generate ideas around problems confronted in the community and our ecology, and how we can solve for them through our collective enquiry.

A prominent Māori Whakatauki about community is "Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi katoa", which translates to "With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive." This proverb emphasizes collaboration, recognizing that everyone contributes something valuable.

This week students from our Maungarei Project Based Learning group, visited Tamaki Zero Waste Hub, located at 153 Pilkington Road.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understanding Recycling Processes: Sia and Hananiah investigated how chip packets, typically non-recyclable in standard systems, can be collected and cleaned for upcycling, inspired by the Tāmaki Zero Waste Hub’s reuse model. She learned the importance of separating materials and maintaining quality for repurposing, applying this to the ChippiePacket initiative’s goal of creating waterproof blankets for the homeless community.

2. Creative Problem-Solving: Student's learnt how small businesses lease space from Tamaki Zero Waste Hub and have a channel to sell their products. Robin introduced the idea of the Circular economy. What is a Circular Economy? It’s about reusing, repairing, or recycling stuff to save resources, reduce waste, and help the planet stay healthy for a long time. For example, at the Zero Waste Tāmaki Hub, they might turn old fabric into new bags—that’s the circular economy in our learning intention which is “We are learning to understand how social enterprises, circular economy principles, and sustainability practices function at the Zero Waste Tāmaki Hub to benefit our Panmure community.”

3. Social Enterprise Awareness: Our facilitator Wendy outlined how profits are reinvested to expand outreach, demonstrating the importance of creating sustainable business models.

4. Cultural and Community Connection: Wendy incorporated Māori values, such as kaitiakitanga (guardianship of the environment), into her tour by discussing how a project like ChippiePacket e.g.respects the land by reducing waste. She proposed gifting blankets to local marae, demonstrating manaakitanga and collaboration. .

Reflection - The Process 3 R's

Student's learnt the end-to-end process of how inorganic rubbish is picked up from the community, sorted and items able to be reused are passed on to the hub, cleaned and sorted based on the 3 R's principles; Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.

Let’s keep cheering for our students as they learn and help our community! Mauri ora!

If you are a local Auckland business keen to connect or advertise, we are looking for the right Partner to join ACES on our learning waka. Contact me on 021 913576 or thelo@aces.school.nz for a confidential chat.

16 May - Pink Shirt Day

21 May - Whakawhanaungatanga new students and Whanau, both Campuses; all other students, no school, work self-directed

2 June - Kings Birthday - Statutory Holiday

3-6 June - Samoan Language Week

9th June - ACES FIFA Futsal Tournament

18 June - NO SCHOOL! Tutor PLD Day

20 June - Matariki - Statutory Holiday

25th June - Wednesday (NO HALF DAY)

26th June - Thursday (Half Day)

27th June - NO SCHOOL! Tutor PLD Day

Term 3 Reminder

14 July - Whakawhanaungatanga Day and

New Students / Whanau Greet and Meet 9.30am - 12.30pm

15 July - New Students Induction

16 July - Term 2 Students Return

17 and 18 July - All Students 9.30am - 12.30pm

Missed one of our previous weekly update editions, don't worry as Ezra would say, "We got you!"!

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ISSUE 2

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ISSUE 8

Alternative Education and Attendance Service | Auckland City Education Services | Auckland

With our Alternative Education Services, students receive so much more than an ordinary education. We pride ourselves on creating a unique, exciting environment that embraces all.