Planning School Programmes
The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum provides the basis for schools to develop programmes in each discipline that accommodate the diverse interests, abilities, needs, and values of all students, regardless of their cultural background or socio-economic circumstances. Such programmes will provide students with opportunities to learn about art forms from overseas and from within New Zealand, including those of Māori, the tangata whenua.
Students will:
- contribute actively to dance, drama, music, and the visual arts within their schools and communities by making, presenting, and responding to art works;
- learn how the arts operate in and contribute to societies and cultures within local and overseas contexts;
- appreciate the significance and value of toi Māori in different contexts, developing understandings of the ideas and messages expressed in the traditional art forms and contemporary developments of toi Māori - for example, in the words of waiata, the images of kowhaiwhai, and the actions of waiata-a-ringa;
- investigate how technological advances have impacted on the ways in which art works are researched, planned, designed, and made, including how print media, electronic media, and other technologies influence communication and interpretation in the arts.
Programmes in the arts disciplines will provide learning opportunities in each of the four strands. The overlapping nature of the strands encourages integrated planning and ensures that, in a given project or unit of work, students will generally learn in more than one strand at the same time. Also, at certain times, selected strands may receive more or less emphasis, depending on the ages and learning needs of students.
Programmes should also recognise the spiral nature of students' learning and of their progression through the eight levels of the curriculum. As they engage with concepts and inquiry processes, over time students will demonstrate greater sophistication and depth of understanding in each arts discipline. Revisiting and building on existing skills, knowledge, and understanding reinforces important skills and concepts and ensures that students' learning is relevant, in-depth, and meaningful.
In years 1-8, students must study, and have opportunities to meet achievement objectives in, all four disciplines. Schools will fulfil this requirement by using a variety of approaches. For example, they may provide separate opportunities for learning in each discipline. This approach ensures that learning programmes in the arts have appropriate status, coherence, and focus. It also ensures that content and objectives are not confused with those of other learning areas and that time is set aside for each discipline.
Alternatively, schools may combine learning in two or more arts disciplines or link the arts disciplines to other essential learning areas. These approaches need careful planning to ensure that students experience a coherent programme that meets the achievement objectives of each arts discipline.
While students must study in all four disciplines, schools have flexibility in determining the weighting they will give to individual disciplines at each level of schooling, according to the needs of their students.
Over the two-year period of years 9-10, students should study, and have opportunities to meet achievement objectives in, all four disciplines. As a minimum requirement, students must study at least two disciplines, with opportunities to meet achievement objectives up to level 5 in one of them by the end of year 10.
Schools will fulfil these requirements by using a variety of approaches. For example, they may provide students with programmes in all four disciplines in year 9, with one or more to be selected for more specialised study in year 10.
Alternatively, schools may provide students with opportunities to study two disciplines in year 9, with at least one to be selected for year 10, or students may continuously study two disciplines over the two-year period.
In years 11-13, The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum provides the basis for specialist teaching and learning programmes in the arts disciplines. It may also support study in specialist film and media courses in the senior secondary school.
