Curriculum

"Ako tahi Tātou, Tipu tahi Tātou, Together we Learn, Together we Grow"

 

New Zealand has a national curriculum that guides what your child learns at school. Your child will develop a range of values and key competencies, or capabilities, that they need to succeed in life and became independent life-long learners. These are all woven into the teaching of learning areas, or subjects.

The National Curriculum is the term used to refer to The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. These set the direction for student learning and guide schools and kura as they design and implement a curriculum that meets the needs of their students. At Taita Central School, we like to start where the child is at and use their culture and experiences to enrich our local curriculum.

There is a big focus on reading, writing and mathematics in the primary years, as these are really important foundation skills that everyone needs in order to be able to do well in life and access the rest of the Curriculum. Where possible, we like to integrate the subjects so a unit of work is well rounded and covers many learning areas.

NZ Curriculum Online

 

Vision The vision is for young people to be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.   Values Students are encouraged to value: excellence, by aiming high and by persevering in the face of difficulties innovation, inquiry, and curiosity, by thinking critically, creatively, and reflectively diversity, as found in our different cultures, languages, and heritages equity, through fairness and social justice community and participation for the common good ecological sustainability, which includes care for the environment integrity, which involves being honest, responsible, and accountable and acting ethically, and to respect themselves, others and human rights

 

Learning Areas

There are 8 learning areas (or subject areas) in The New Zealand Curriculum:

• English
• The Arts
• Health and Physical Education
• Learning Languages
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Science
• Social Sciences
• Technology

The values and competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum are woven into these learning areas. They are designed to encourage enjoyment of learning and the ability to think critically, manage oneself, set goals, overcome obstacles and get along with others – the attributes students need to succeed as adults.

Key Competencies

Competencies are abilities and capabilities that people use to live, learn, work and contribute as active members of their communities.

The New Zealand Curriculum identifies 5 key competencies that it has a focus on children developing throughout their time at school:

• Thinking - is about using thinking processes to make sense of information, experiences and ideas.
• Using language, symbols, and texts - working with, being able to understand, and making sense of the codes (languages and symbols) in which knowledge is expressed.
• Managing self - having self-motivation, a "can-do" attitude, and seeing oneself as a capable learner.
• Relating to others - is about interacting effectively with a range of different people in a range of different situations, including things like being able to listen well, recognise different points of view, and share ideas.
• Participating and contributing - being involved in communities, such as family, whānau, school, and be able to contribute and make connections with other people.