Wellington -
Rata Unit
 Rata Street School
Rata Street
Naenae
LOWER HUTT



Telephone: Head Office on 09-309 1045 or
0800 GKP KID
Unit Direct Line:
045778175
E-mail Address: rata@giftedkids.co.nz


Teachers
 Deb Clark
(Associate Principal)

Vicki Adam
(Lead Teacher).

Rachel Pottinger
(GKP teacher)

History
The Rata Street Gifted Kids Programme Unit is hosted by Rata Street School and opened in Term 4, 2002. This year GKP Rata is operating 8 GKP days each week, 5 at Rata Street School and 3 at Naenae Intermediate. Our students range from year 4 to year 8 with many of them now in their 2nd, 3rd or even 4th year of the GKP one day programme.

Contributing Schools
Avalon Intermediate School
Avalon Primary School
Dyer Street School
Epuni School
Fergusson Intermediate School
Koraunui School
Maranatha Christian School
Naenae Intermediate School
Naenae Primary School
Normandale School
Pomare School
Rata Street School
St Michael's School
Taita Central School
Tawhai School
Marble Mazes  

After several weeks of exploring mazes, the 7 and 8 year olds in our Tuesday class spent a whole day making 3D marble mazes. Their mazes are amazing! They have tunnels, bridges, junctions, dead-ends and more. Tricky to make and tricky to solve!



 
Honey Hives - Bee-ing Narurally Systematic  
Students in the Rata Monday class and the Naenae Tuesday and Wednesday classes have spent the term investigating the honey bee, culminating in a fabulous trip to a local Bee Hive to see how the bees are managed and honey is gathered.


 

Halamehi Feki plays bee-keeper

  

 

 
 
Mrs. Fortescue shows students how honey is collected in the cells of special frames. It is removed through process called “uncapping."
Pulse of Life  
As part of a unit on body systems, students in the Thursday and Friday classes conducted an experiment to gauge what kinds of exercise made the heart work the hardest. They also discovered how long it took for their individual heart rates to return to normal after strenuous exercise – a measure of cardiovascular fitness.


The Friday class performs a pulse check.

  

 

Pre-experiment brainstorming

  
Kereru Discovery Project
Students in the Thursday and Friday classes spent some time learning about the Kereru (NZ Wood Pigeon) with PhD student, Monica Awasthy. Over 3 weeks the students learned about the habits and characteristics of this special native bird, as well as studying the features of the environments in which they live and how they contribute to the ecosystem. This investigating finished with a trip to Otari Wilton Bush to learn firsthand about how the birds are caught in nets and tagged so that their movements can be recorded using special radio-tracking equipment.