On Tuesday the 23/02/2016 we began our first Enviroschools/Whangawehi workshop here at school. This workshop was about starting to plan the beginning of a new school song. What do our children consider special at Te Mahia School? Why do they think living in Paradise is pretty cool? If you have a school song who is it for, (the intended audience). We as writers are writing for our whanau, community members, people who have not been to Mahia and future families and children who may enroll at Te Mahia School. We had to keep in mind when writing a song the following things. Minds are like flowers, have fun, be inspired by other songs you like listening to, be prepared to get rid of the parts you don’t like or attempts from your first go. Of course, Mahia Iz Paradise was our initial song to listen/view and was enormous inspiration for our task we were about to do. We also wanted our children to be a little clearer with different genre of music; Rap, Hip Hop, Reggae, Pop R&B, Rock, Waiata. We then had a go at writing a line or two and beginning this process. Whanau, there are already some catchy lyrics written down and we even had people on guitar and drums with potential music to match the lyrics. This was so much fun and highlighted how music is so good for the soul. Will keep you posted with how our next session goes and the progress we make. Exciting times!

Te Mahia school team