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Refreshing our national curriculum for schooling
15/2/2021
The national curriculum for schooling will be refreshed over the next five years to ensure it is more clear, more relevant and easier to use.
The curriculum refresh was announced by Associate Ministers of Education, Jan Tinetti and Kelvin Davis.
Find out more about the refresh of the national curriculum for schooling
In September 2019 the Minister of Education, the Hon Chris Hipkins, announced the need to refresh the national schooling curriculum to ensure it remains fit for purpose and clear about the most important learning that can’t be left to chance.
Since then the Ministry has been working with people from the education sector and wider communities to really understand how to make the improvements needed for students to succeed now and in the future.
An example of what the refreshed content could look like is the draft curriculum content for Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories and Te Takanga o Te Wā, which is open for public feedback:
NEW – Leading Local Curriculum Guide: Aotearoa New Zealand's histories
5/2/2021
This guide complements the Leading Local Curriculum Guide series.
It is the first in a series of two guides designed to support primary, intermediate, and secondary school leaders to understand and plan for Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories within social sciences.
Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories
3/2/2021
From 2022, Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories will be taught in all schools and kura.
Find out about the development of the draft curriculum content, download the curriculum content, and give feedback at Education.Govt.NZ – Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories in our national curriculum.
Professional support for early literacy coming in 2021
2/2/2021
Professional support will be available in 2021 and 2022 for literacy specialists and Years 1 to 3 teachers, with an initial focus on new entrant and Year 1 teachers.
The Better Start Literacy Approach | Te Ara Reo Matatini (BSLA) professional support will be delivered by the University of Canterbury during terms one and two 2021. The BSLA is an integrated approach to developing vocabulary, oral, listening, spelling, writing and reading skills in the first year of learning, utilising the Ready to Read Phonics Plus texts. It focuses on the link between spoken and written language, systematically supporting children’s phonological and phonic awareness, letter-sound knowledge and oral language.
Applications are open now for schools, Kāhui Ako and clusters to apply for professional support for new entrant and Year 1 teachers, along with a nominated literacy specialist, through the PLD website. Literacy specialists include RTLits, Kāhui AKo Cross-community Leads, School Literacy Leads, Learning Support Coordinators and RTLBs with a strong literacy background.
Attached is a presentation that has recently been provided to the sector. This presentation provides information about the early literacy approach and, in particular, the professional support currently provided for schools; the Better Start Literacy Approach. The presentation outlines the nature of this professional support and how to access it.
More information will be published in the Education Gazette and the Bulletin for School Leaders early in 2021.
Early Literacy Approach
(PowerPoint 2007 4 MB)
Replacement of Te Kete Ipurangi
11/8/2020
Teachers and leaders from early learning to senior secondary have told us that they want easy to find, quality online curriculum resources to better support them to do their work.
The Ministry of Education has released a Request for Proposal to build a new online curriculum hub via the Government Electronic Tender Service on Monday 10 August 2020. The tender closes on Friday 11 September 2020. We expect that work will get started early in 2021 and take several years to complete.
The technology build will provide the place where teachers and leaders with students and their whānau can find quality assured curriculum teaching resources that they can edit and personalise to meet their specific needs. The design of the new technology will help everyone make sense of the curriculum, what’s important to learn, and how to teach it.
It will complement Kauwhata Reo, the platform which supports learning in and through te reo Māori, which was launched in 2019.
The current step follows the initial platform Request for Information released in March 2020. We expect the first release of the technology build will be ready to begin content loading from mid to late 2021.
In the meantime, we’ll be working with potential users to make sure that our online curriculum resources are relevant and useful. We will provide updates here as the work develops.
nzmaths: Learning at home
14/4/2020
Do you need some help supporting your students with maths learning at home?
nzmaths has suggestions for students in years 1-10 including:
- Maths at our house: Ideas on how to engage with maths using everyday experiences and resources found around your home
- Weekly plans: Suggestions for structured weekly plans using the resources on nzmaths. Each session has activities that would take about 45 minutes.
Learning from home
24/3/2020
The Ministry of Education's Learning from home website has advice and resources for parents and whānau, teachers and leaders that spans early learning through to senior secondary to support learning at home.
More resources will be added in the coming days and weeks.
The resources include activities that parents can use with their children and young people alongside what teachers provide.
The resources will also support teachers to plan activities for children and young people to work on from home.
The resources are sorted into age groups and year levels to help you find things that you can use or adapt for your children’s learning.
Take home kits will also be provided and you will be advised how to access these when they are available.
Refer to the website's menu to access information for Getting Ready, Wellbeing and Supporting Learning.
If your tamaiti is learning Te Reo Māori or you would like resources in Te Reo Māori, visit the Kauwhata Reo website.
If your child or young person is engaged in NCEA this year, you can also visit the NZQA website for more information.
Diversity resources available
16/3/2020
One year on from the Christchurch terror attacks many communities and schools will pause and reflect on what happened to remember those who were lost and those who continue to be affected to this day.
There are a number of resources that support safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for all students, while celebrating the diversity of our nation.
Additionally they can support students to appreciate the diverse cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, and languages which comprise New Zealand.
Resources are available from this page of NZ Curriculum Online.
Digital technologies implementation support tool
16/3/2020
The new Digital Technologies implementation support tool is a resource to help you with teaching the revised technology learning area.
The tool provides a model and process of steps to follow to take you from not yet started, through to leading and innovating.
You can find the support tool on the Technology Online website along with the complementary guide.
Dyslexia resource kete
3/3/2020
These Ministry of Education resources provide specific strategies for supporting students with dyslexia in phonological awareness, reading, and writing. They include:
- About Dyslexia: Supporting literacy in the classroom
- information about a pamphlet for parents
- a link to the Māori medium resource for kaiako and whānau – Tīpaopao
- other supporting information