Hauora: Well Being

The concept of well-being encompasses the physical, mental and emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of health. This concept is recognised by the World Health Organisation.

At HNI we care deeply about the well-being of our students. We believe that our students need to be well and happy to learn and to be able to immerse themselves in the opportunities that our school offers. We believe that they need to be well and happy to meet our vision ‘Growing inspired learners - confident and capable to navigate the future.’ To support this view the following philosophies, approaches and programmes are woven into daily life here. 

The school values guide us in all decisions and responses. Each week values are introduced in our Monday assembly, Rahina hui, and explored further in classrooms within a range of contexts. This year HNI will focus on using the Resililence Project to deliver hauora and wellbeing. 

Hauora Curriculum

• HNI Health Curriculum

• Puberty and ‘Navigating the Journey’ Sexuality Education 

• Drug Education 

• Healthy Lifestyles 

• Small group programmes - HNI contracts facilitators to deliver these important support programmes in school. 

  • Shine Girl is a special programme that has 9 sessions (1 per week) that focuses on the concepts of Worth, Strength, Potential and Purpose. Each term 10-12 girls complete the course. The sessions are filled with fun, encouragement, teaching, object lessons and group time where the girls can discuss their understanding of the learning and can enjoy building friendships with others. The aim of the sessions is to help girls to develop emotional resilience and to give them skills in working through healthy friendships, confidence, their value, peer pressure issues. We also look at bullying and the different factors and emotions involved in this. 

  • Inspire in Education: Pastoral Care and Mentoring ‘Producing Rangatira for Tomorrow’ Our strategic objective: To have Māori participate and succeed at all levels of learning. Our aspirations: 1. For all Māori students to feel safe and included, and able to learn as Māori. 2. To provide an outstanding learning experience for Māori learners. 3. To provide a learning environment that is attractive to and supportive of Māori and facilitates their success. Inspire in Education works mainly with Maori students. We have two groups for boys and another group for girls. 

  • The STRENGTH program is about equipping adolescents with the knowledge and skills to discover who they are and the person they want to become. Strength is a unique personal development and group mentoring tool for boys, that uses an inspirational, practical and experiential approach to learning. The programme is founded upon the premise that every life counts and has intrinsic value and fosters an awareness of this belief. As a result, individuals are equipped to become effective global citizens for the future. 

At HNI we also recognise the wider responsibility to learn about emotions and ways to positively respond to the challenges of everyday life. 

Counseling

We have sourced funding to employ an experienced school counselor for 10 hours a week. This is a response to the increased demand for this service from whanau. Whanau will always be involved in discussion before any referral is made. We also make referrals on behalf of whanau to local counseling organisations. 

Our school counselor, Nichola Jobson works with students here at school, during school time. Students access counseling through a referral system and parent permission being gained before counseling can begin with any student. Nichola works in a variety of ways including one on one and small group counseling with the aim of improving student function at school.