Te reo after school care provider Te Aka moves inside the classroom

Te Aka at Bay City Outreach on stage with their production Maui as they celebrate 10 years.

After a decade of taking care of children after school, Te Aka Charitable Trust, based in Flaxmere, has now turned to increasing literacy and numeracy inside the classroom.

Its iwi and education initiative in conjunction with the Ministry of Education (MOE) focuses not only on lifting achievement in the Maori language but English as well.

"MOE came to us because of our already established links in the community," says Te Aka co-founder Alayna Hokianga.

"It enables teachers to be helped in the classroom as well as the students to tackle subjects that they find challenging or tough to understand."

The new initiative started in July this year and is aimed at the primary and intermediate age groups, with students able to have a mentor to help them in the classroom.

It also supports the student with the pastoral care side of things like making sure they can get to school and that they have enough food to eat.

"We are also looking at an out of education component – those who have dropped out of school - to help them as an alternative correspondence school where all the subjects can be taught online."

Te Aka was established by Alayna and her husband Thompson and has since grown to three centres and 14 staff.

"We started out because there were no kaupapa Maori-based after school care in Heretaunga, so we decided to start it up.

"I had no experience, only a mama-of-four and a kaiako at a kohanga reo," explains Hokianga.

Their unique after school programme Whai Kura and holiday programme implements the use of te reo and tikanga Maori in all aspects of its delivery.

Something that was unheard of when Te Aka first started out, making them the only after school programme of its kind in the country.

"It was a hard road, we weren't accepted by all, but we've been able to grow from six kids during our very first week to now being full to capacity."

The programme is open to everyone regardless of the level of fluency. "Kids don't have to be fluent, we cater to everyone."

Te Aka will be branching out to Hastings but the long-term plan is to expand nation-wide.

To celebrate its major milestone a special production called Maui was performed by the children at the Bay City Outreach Centre in Hastings.