Pai Tū, Pai Hinga by Airana Ngarewa is a powerful and uplifting short story that follows Sun, a Year 6 student determined to step out of the shadows and make the most of his final year at primary school. Set against the backdrop of inter-school swimming sports, the story explores courage, self-belief, and the whakataukī pai tū, pai hinga—to stand strong, even if you fall. Through Sun’s internal struggle and the encouragement of friends, whānau, and community, the text captures the tension of facing fears and the pride that comes from giving something a go.

Rich in voice, humour, and emotion, the story supports students to explore growth mindset, leadership, and resilience, while celebrating friendship, mana, and collective support. It invites readers to reflect on what it means to be brave, to belong, and to lead by example, making it an engaging and affirming text for upper primary learners.

This pack includes three clearly structured lesson overviews designed to support close, shared and independent reading. Each lesson provides a direct link to the text, purposeful warm-up questions, focused do now activities, explicit teaching of key technical and subject-specific language, exit tickets, and opportunities for student self-assessment.

The three lesson overviews focus on:

1. Comprehension and inferencing, supporting students to locate information, make meaning, and draw conclusions from the text;

2. The author’s use of language and structure, exploring how word choice, sentence structure, and text features shape meaning; and

3. Author’s purpose and themes, encouraging students to think critically about ideas, messages, and viewpoints.

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2

Year Level: Year 5

English: reading for meaning, analysing character motivation and change, exploring theme and message, understanding dialogue and narrative voice, making inferences, summarising key events, and supporting ideas with evidence from the text

Science: physical activity and wellbeing, understanding the body in movement, perseverance and personal challenge

Health and Physical Education: resilience, confidence, goal setting, participation, teamwork, managing emotions in competitive situations

Social Sciences: identity and belonging, leadership, community values, whakataukī and cultural perspectives, relationships and collective encouragement

Text type: Fiction, realistic narrative, short story

Key words include: bravery, community, competition, confidence, courage, friendship, goals, growth mindset, leadership, Māori perspectives, narrative text, perseverance, realistic fiction, relationships, resilience, school, school life, short story, swimming, whakataukī, wellbeing