A'oga Fa'a Samoa

A'oga Fa'a Samoa is a full-immersion Samoan education and care centre based at Richmond Road Primary School.  The philosophy of A'oga Fa'a Samoa is to promote Samoan language and culture so as to nurture positive identity of the children.

Innovation

The A’oga Fa’a Samoa in Auckland is the only licensed Samoan education and care centre connected to a primary school with a Samoan-English bilingual unit. The key innovation at the a’oga is that small groups of children stay with the same teacher from point of entry as an infant through the different groups in the centre and as they transition to Richmond Road School on site. Proven strategies are used to steep children in their Samoan culture and language at the centre in order to nurture their cultural identity, strengthen bilingualism and build their confidence.

Centres of Innovation (COI) research

Major research questions:

What helps learning and language continuity as children make transitions within and from the A'oga Fa'a Samoa?
How can the key approaches that help learning and language continuity be implemented in practice?

COI tenure

Mid 2003 to 30 June 2006 (Round one).

COI research associates

Dr Val Podmore, Institute for Early Childhood Studies, Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Airini, Auckland College of Education

Service location

113 Richmond Road, Ponsonby, Auckland, New Zealand.

Visitors

A'oga Fa'a Samoa completed its COI contract on 30 June 2006 and is no longer resourced to accommodate many visitors.

Contact details

Telephone: 09 378 0403
Fax: 09 378 0414
Email: aoga@ihug.co.nz