ULIMASAO PHILOSOPHY

At the core of the framework is our philosophy. The Ulimasao Programme involves working together with our heart, mind, body and strength to follow God’s purpose for the wellbeing of our children as we instill a sense of our culture, duty, service and independence to the future leaders of this community.

1. Heart ( Agaga)

As Samoans, our family is our community – our children, our church. It is our culture and tradition to work and play and share collectively as a responsible faith community. Therefore the Ulimasao Programme exists to hold a collective responsibility to raise and guide our children to be upstanding citizens in our community. 

We believe that:

• identity and belonging in our culture is reflected and grown through the use of the Samoan language. It is important that our culture is expressed in all aspects of our programme.
• a strong sense of individual worth is foundational to building confident and competent learners. Therefore, we will show love and acceptance to every child, young person and adult, appreciating individuality and diversity.
• our children and young people should be brought up with strong Christian values that will enhance moral decision making in the future. We aim to demonstrate spirituality and acceptable moral behavior throughout our teaching and learning. Justice, honesty, passion and good sense of humor are valued habits from the heart.
• We wish to develop happy children and young people that are mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually well.

2. Head (Mafaufau)

The Ulimasao Programme is influenced by the educational thinking promoted by theorists such as Brofenbrenner (Ecosystem), Vygotsky (Socio-constructive theory), Costa & Kellick (Habits and Mind). Samoan cultural values of good relationships, biblical principles and understandings for good Christians would empower our children to meet the requirements of The New Zealand Curriculum and National Standards. 

We will:

• engage in ongoing professional development and reflective thinking to ensure that we remain lifelong learners.
• encourage children and young people to reflect on their own learning process. 
• empower our children and young people to be confident and competent learners who will achieve successfully at school.  

Our dream is that our children will go on to be successful learners at tertiary level and be successful lifelong learners.

3. Hands (Lima)

We will endeavor to create:

• collaborative partnership with parents and aiga frequently through portfolios, newsletters, interviews in order to create a programme that supports their work as parents.
• strong partnership with schools to create a programme that is aligned with the work they do to educate our children and young people. Together with our own observations, we will also work with the schools to measure the progress of our children and young people in achieving National Standards.

4. Feet (Vae)

We believe that: 

• teaching and modelling respect will embed it before our children reach older age. 
• our relationships with children, young people and their families likewise needs to be mutually respectful, honoring children and adults alike.

All involved in the programme will position themselves in the environment at the children’s level as ako (both teachers and learners).