Te Mātaiaho/The NZ Curriculum is currently being reviewed and refreshed.

Over the next three years, the leadership team, staff, and Board of Trustees will collaborate to implement the new curricula for each of the eight learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum as they are released.

The timeline as it currently stands is; English, Mathematics and Statistics curricula are to be implemented this year.  Science and Technology curricula will be rolled out in 2026, followed by The Arts, Health and Physical Education, and Learning Languages.  A refreshed Social Sciences curriculum was implemented in 2024.

Te Mātaiaho/The NZ Curriculum has moved towards a progression model where curriculum achievement levels have been replaced with ‘phases of learning’. Each phase has a critical focus that establishes a strength-based focus on the student and their social, emotional, and cognitive learning. The critical focuses are;

·  Phase 1 (Years 0 - 3) Thriving in environments rich in literacy and numeracy

·  Phase 2 (Year 3 - 6) Expanding horizons of knowledge and collaboration

·  Phase 3 (Year 7 - 8) Seeing ourselves in the wider world and advocating with and for others

Each phase of learning has progress outcomes that state what children should understand, know and do at that phase. All eight learning areas will follow an Understand, Know, Do model. The models are based on the premise that students gain a deeper awareness of key concepts (understand) when they study the context (know) through essential practices (do). 

Below are the UKD models for Mathematics and statistics, and English.

What does this mean for us in 2025? 

We are currently in the early stages of implementing the Mathematics and Statistics, and English curricula. Over two days at the beginning of the year teaching staff undertook professional learning in Mathematics and Statistics, run by Ministry of Education facilitators. 

We began our professional development in Structured Literacy three years ago. Therefore  the teaching practices associated with this pedagogy are well established across the school.  Due to this forward planning we are well underway with implementing the refreshed English curriculum.

As well as regular staff meetings sessions, we have two more Teachers Only Days planned during 2025, (19th June and 18th August) to continue our professional learning in these two core learning areas.  This intensive training is enabling us to collectively develop teaching and learning programmes underpinned by evidence-based best practice.

Reporting

Along with the new maths curriculum comes new assessment and reporting practices that extend across all of the new curriculum (the move away from levels to phases).   This means that the criteria we use to level your child against expectations and how it is presented to you will look different.  With the rapid pace of the maths rollout, this side of things is still in development at a systems level and is not yet ready for us to use with any degree of certainty.   

As a result of all this uncertainty, we have paused our reporting to you this term while we review our systems and reporting practices for our mid-year reporting cycle. I can assure you that the actual teaching in the classroom is well aligned to the new curriculum requirements, so we will be ready to go once the assessment and reporting practices are cemented. 

Jill Evans