Te Rito Toi
Te Rito Toi is an on-line resource developed to support teachers when they first return to school following major traumatic or life changing events, such as the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
What is Te Rito Toi?
Te Rito Toi provides research informed practical classroom activities and lesson plans to help children better understand their changed world and to begin to see themselves as being part of the promise of new and better futures.
Te Rito Toi seeks to fill the return to school with the joy, possibility and the beauty of the arts to re-engage students with the wonder of learning. Te Rito Toi is based on understanding that the arts are uniquely placed to lead a return to productive learning when schools reopen.
At the heart of Te Rito Toi is the understanding that schools must not just prepare students for the future but also help them make sense of the present. The arts are a bridge to a better future.
The story behind Te Rito Toi
Te Rito Toi builds on research about schools operating post-disaster, including Christchurch post-earthquake and post-terror attack, using the arts to manage the stories, questions and issues children bring to the classroom after trauma or crisis.
