The school teaches the Ministry’s of Education curriculum as specified in the New Zealand Curriculum Framework and National Curriculum statements. All schools are required to follow the same curriculum however, freedom is provided for schools to place a local emphasis on aspects of the curriculum that the school’s community has prescribed as particularly important. This local direction is stated in the School Charter and is available for all parents and caregivers to read.
The New Zealand Curriculum Framework defines seven essential learning areas and eight essential skills which describe the knowledge, understanding, skills and attributes which all children need to acquire at school.
|
Essential Learning Areas |
Essential Skills |
| Language and Languages | Communication |
| Mathematics | Numeracy |
| Science | Information |
| Technology | Problem-solving |
| Social Sciences | Self-management and Competitive |
| The Arts | Social and Co-operative |
| Health and Physical Well-Being |
Physical Work and Study |
NB. Technology is a new curriculum area and aims to develop competence and confidence in understanding and using existing technologies and in creating solutions to technological problems.
The National Curriculum statements describe what should be achieved with each essential learning area. The essential skills are developed through work in the learning areas and often a particular skill is addressed through several areas.
Achievement objectives are grouped according to a curriculum area, strands (or subjects) within that area and are in eight levels.
For example: The English curriculum is part of Language and Languages. The achievement objectives are grouped into;
Oral Language - listening and speaking
Written Language - reading and writing including spelling
Visual Language - the presentation of language including handwriting
The eight levels cover thirteen years of schooling from primary through to secondary education. Each level roughly relates to two years of schooling but the overall emphasis is that each child is expected to move through the levels at his/her own rate. It is very normal to have a child working on level 1 for some aspects of a curriculum strand while working on level 2 and possibly level 3 for other aspects. Within one classroom it may be that all children are learning the same topic but can each be working at several different levels.
Classroom teachers maintain careful records of the progress and achievement of each child. Progress will be reported on twice a year to parents and caregivers through written reports and an interview, however an appointment can be made with the teacher to discuss progress at any time.