Sports/Hakinakina at The Forest School
After School Sports
We're excited to now have a range of after-school sporting opportunities available for our students, giving children the chance to stay active, develop new skills, and connect with friends beyond the school day.
Community Team Sports
Children can join local community teams for sports.
These teams are parent-led, with families coordinating registrations, coaching, and game-day support.
If you'd like to help organise or lead a team in the future, we'd love to hear from you.
Forest School Activities
We're also pleased to offer several Forest School-run activities after school, including:
Surfing
Running Club
Surf Lifesaving
These sessions are designed to make the most of our incredible local environment while building confidence, fitness, resilience, and a lifelong love of being active outdoors.
Information about registrations, schedules, and seasonal opportunities will be shared with families throughout the year as each activity becomes available.
Free Play
Free play is the cornerstone of positive social development and foundational in our learning approach. Free play at The Forest School is unstructured, led by the child and is an opportunity where children can make their own choices, be directed by their own interests, create their own realities and use their imagination in their own way. It is spontaneous, develops from natural curiosity and allows children to explore and experience the world around them.
Te Whare Tapa Whā
The Maori concept of health and wellbeing that is woven through our curriculum. Te whare tapa whā provides a holistic approach to learning and development. It is based on the view that learning is not only about the intellect, but also our physical and social learning, as well as our spiritual and mental wellbeing.
Relationship Based Learning
Teaching and learning are grounded in strong relationships. When children feel connected to their teachers, they are more engaged, confident, and ready to learn. At The Forest School, we believe every child has unique strengths and potential, and our role is to help them discover what they love, what they’re good at, and how they can contribute.
Our mixed age structure reflects real life, where relationships naturally form across ages. We value the tuakana–teina dynamic, where older or more experienced students support younger ones, and where these roles can shift depending on the context. We also embrace ako, recognising that teaching and learning are reciprocal- teachers learn from students just as students learn from teachers.
Place Based Education
Our One Day School offers a place based education approach that takes a school’s geographic location as a context for learning. Place based education is designed to develop in students, a love for their environment and a greater sense of belonging, connection and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) to the community and biodiversity that exists there.
The Emergent Curriculum
An emergent curriculum is a way of planning that focuses on being responsive to children’s interests and needs to create meaningful learning experiences. It is based on the idea that children learn best when curriculum experiences represent their curiosities and strengths:
Children must have some control over the direction of their learning;
Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing;
Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that they must be allowed to explore;
Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.
Education for Sustainability
Education for sustainability is about learning to think and act in ways that will safeguard the future wellbeing of people and our planet. Children connect with the environment all day, every day. This may be in pest plant removal, water testing, native planting, regenerative gardening, marine investigations and beach clean ups to name a few. Students work regularly with Forest and Bird, Restore Hibiscus & Bays and Enviroschools to learn about the kaupapa of Education for Sustainability.
"Mō tātou te taiao ko te atawhai, mō tātou te taiao ko te oranga" "It is for us to care for and look after the environment to ensure its wellbeing, in doing so we ensure our own wellbeing and that of our future generations."
Five Ways To Wellbeing
Our mental health is just as important as our physical health and The Forest School is committed to supporting children to have a healthy mind. This includes how we think, feel and act. As adults, we know how important it is to integrate wellbeing into our daily lives, and this is just as important for children too. We want children to be healthy and well in all areas of their life, so The Forest School follows the principles of The Mental Health Foundation: Five Ways To Wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Give, and Take Notice.