English teacher Rod Deverson is about to take a sabbatical, having been selected for Te Ara Reo Māori, a fulltime language and culture course at Te Wananga o Aotearoa in Dunedin.
"My goal is to be conversationally fluent in te reo Māori by the end of the year," he said.
"Ongoing learning and upskilling keeps me sharp and enthusiastic in the classroom.
"Students pick that up and it energises them, too."
Achievement with earlier te reo and tikanga courses helped earn his spot on the 38-week programme of higher level training.
South Otago High School principal Mike Wright said "mihi is no longer enough, we need to apply te reo more as the curriculum now requires more equal representation of Māori and Pākehā world views in schools".
"We’ve seen first hand how this improves retention, especially for Maori students, through to the final school years and with outcomes afterwards," Mr Wright said.
"We see Rod’s time away as an investment which will be of benefit for the school as well as the teacher as we expect him to help all our staff with what he’s learned when he gets back."
Mr Deverson’s father was a teacher and he started his own teaching career in Nelson in 2000.
His experience includes 14 years of school teaching in England.
He has been at SOHS since 2014.
"It’s about more than welcoming students and families at the start of the year," he said.
"It’s important for everybody to know New Zealand’s history began long before 1840, to find out about different ways of understanding your environment, and the magnitude of Māori achievements like navigating and exploring, the effort and courage it must have taken to bring their families and culture here."
