OUR CURRICULUM

What is Literacy about?

Literacy is about learning to use, create and enjoy the Literacy language in all its forms – oral, written and visual communication.

How is Literacy structured in the New Zealand Curriculum?

Literacy is structured into two interconnected strands:

Making Meaning  |  listening, reading and viewing.

Creating Meaning  |  speaking, writing and presenting.

Students need to practice making meaning and creating meaning at each level of the curriculum.

How is Literacy taught at our school.

We believe that our students need to practice making and creating meaning for the following purposes:

• To Entertain

• To Inform

• To Instruct

• To Persuade

Numeracy is defined as: the bridge between mathematics and daily life. It includes the knowledge and skills needed to apply mathematics to everyday family and financial matters, learning, work and community tasks, social and leisure activities. 

Numeracy is basically numerical literacy. 

To have good numeracy skills means you have an ability to reason and work with numbers and be able to use and understand other mathematical concepts. 

It means being able to add two or three numbers in your head, being able to measure an item and decide how to use that measurement, and being able to problem solve using key mathematical skills. 

What is mathematics and statistics about?

Kei hopu tōu ringa ki te aka tāepa,

engari kia mau ki te aka matua.

Mathematics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in quantities, space, and time.

 
Statistics is the exploration and use of patterns and relationships in data. These two disciplines are related but different ways of thinking and of solving problems. Both equip students with effective means for investigating, interpreting, explaining, and making sense of the world in which they live.

Mathematicians and statisticians use symbols, graphs, and diagrams to help them find and communicate patterns and relationships, and they create models to represent both real-life and hypothetical situations. These situations are drawn from a wide range of social, cultural, scientific, technological, health, environmental, and economic contexts.

Pūtaiao / Science education aims to equip all ākonga with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become responsible and informed members of, and consequently positive and productive contributors to New Zealand’s economy and future.

The NZ curriculum provides the framework for planning and making decisions about a school’s science programme. However, to keep the learning authentic and meaningful, our school community is charged with ensuring their science scheme is local and specific to the needs of all ākonga.

Science is both a process of enquiry and a body of knowledge; it is an integrated discipline. Therefore the development of scientific skills and attitudes is inextricably linked to the development of ideas (knowledge) in science

The New Zealand Curriculum describes the purpose Social Science as follows:

Through the social sciences, students develop the knowledge and skills to enable them to: better understand, participate in, and contribute to the local, national, and global communities in which they live and work; engage critically with societal issues; and evaluate the sustainability of alternative social, economic, political, and environmental practices.

Our goal at our school is to ensure that students understand who they are, and how they fit into the world around them. 

We honour the Treaty of Waitangi and the bi-cultural foundation of Aotearoa, New Zealand, while exploring the multicultural nature of Aotearoa and our school. Our learning focuses on conceptual understanding using an inquiry process to explore the past present and future with an emphasis of sparking interest and engagement that leads to more personalised inquiry. 

What is health and physical education about?

He oranga ngākau, he pikinga waiora.

In health and physical education, the focus is on the well-being of the students themselves, of other people, and of society through learning in health-related and movement contexts.

Four underlying and interdependent concepts are at the heart of this learning area:

• Hauora1 – a Māori philosophy of well-being that includes the dimensions taha wairua, taha hinengaro, taha tinana, and taha whānau, each one influencing and supporting the others.

• Attitudes and values – a positive, responsible attitude on the part of students to their own well-being; respect, care, and concern for other people and the environment; and a sense of social justice.

• The socio-ecological perspective – a way of viewing and understanding the interrelationships that exist between the individual, others, and society.

• Health promotion – a process that helps to develop and maintain supportive physical and emotional environments and that involves students in personal and collective action.

Why are digital technologies being used for learning?

Education is changing. For many of us, where our children learn, what they learn and how they learn is very different from what we experienced at school.

As our world keeps changing we need our young people to be confident, creative, connected and actively involved life-long learners. We need an education system that supports the development of values, knowledge and competencies, and sets them up to do well in the world.

Digital technologies are an important part of your child's world. Your child uses them to connect with each other, to learn new skills and pursue their interests further than has ever been possible.

They also offer new opportunities for teachers and leaders, and new ways for you, your whānau, iwi and community to contribute to your child's learning.

Digital technologies can enable:

• learning to happen anywhere and any at any time, not just in the classroom

• your child to connect and collaborate with other students and teachers outside their school and even across the world

• your child to understand challenging concepts in virtual worlds that would not otherwise be possible

• easy access to the huge range of resources available on the internet to support learning (websites, apps and more)

• you, your family, whānau and community to become more involved and contribute to your child's education, for example  through school Facebook pages and student blogs, and

• your child to follow personal interests and talents and access experts not available to them locally.