School+curriculum

=Planning and Professional development= = = =The relationship between the New Zealand Curriculum and the school curriculum= The New Zealand Curriculum sets the direction for teaching and learning in English-medium New Zealand schools. But it is a framework rather than a detailed plan. This means that while every school curriculum must be clearly aligned with the intent of this document, schools have considerable flexibility when determining the detail. In doing this, they can draw on a wide range of ideas, resources, and models. Schools are required to base their curriculum on the principles of the New Zealand Curriculum, to encourage and model the values, and to develop the key competencies at all year levels. In years 1–10, schools are required to provide teaching and learning in English, the arts, health and physical education, mathematics and statistics, science, the social sciences, and technology.

Principles
The principles are foundations of curriculum decisionmaking. They embody beliefs about the nature of the educational experience and the entitlement of students; they apply equally to all schools and to every aspect of the curriculum. Schools should be able to clearly demonstrate their commitment to the principles and to articulate how they are given effect in teaching and learning.

Values, key competencies,and learning areas
The New Zealand Curriculum identifies values to be encouraged and modelled and to be explored by students, key competencies that students will develop over time and in a range of settings, and learning areas that describe what they will come to know and do. Schools need to consider how each of these aspects of the curriculum will be promoted and developed in teaching and learning. They can do this in different ways. Schools may, for example, decide to organise their curriculum around one of these three aspects (values, key competencies, or learning areas) and deliberately weave the other two through their programmes. Alternatively, they may decide to organise their curriculum around central themes, integrating values, key competencies, knowledge, and skills across a number of learning areas. Or they may use another approach or a combination of approaches. The values, competencies, knowledge, and skills that students will need for addressing real-life situations are rarely confined to one part of the curriculum. Wherever possible, schools should aim to design their curriculum so that learning crosses apparent boundaries.

Values
Every school has a set of values. They are expressed in its philosophy, in the way it is organised, and in interpersonal relationships at every level. Following discussions with their communities, many schools list their values in their charters. The New Zealand Curriculum identifies a number of values that have widespread community support. These values are to be encouraged and modelled, and they are to be explored by students. Schools need to consider how they can make the values an integral part of their curriculum and how they will monitor the effectiveness of the approach taken.

Key competencies
The key competencies are both end and means. They are a focus for learning – and they enable learning. They are the capabilities that young people need for growing, working, and participating in their communities and society. The school curriculum should challenge students to use and develop the competencies across the range of learning areas and in increasingly complex and unfamiliar situations. Opportunities for doing this can often be integrated into existing programmes of work. Use can also be made of opportunities provided by the ways in which school environments and events are structured. There will be times when students can initiate activities themselves. Such activities provide meaningful contexts for learning and self-assessment. In practice, the key competencies are most often used in combination. When researching an issue of interest, for example, students are likely to need to: • set and monitor personal goals, manage time frames, arrange activities, and reflect on and respond to ideas they encounter (managing self); • interact, share ideas, and negotiate with a range of people (relating to others); • call on a range of communities for information and use that information as a basis for action (participating and contributing); • analyse and consider a variety of possible approaches to the issue at hand (thinking); • create texts to record and communicate ideas, using language and symbols appropriate to the relevant learning area(s) (using language, symbols, and texts). When designing and reviewing their curriculum, schools will need to consider how to encourage and monitor the development of the key competencies. They will need to clarify their meaning for their students. They will also need to clarify the conditions that will help or hinder the development of the competencies, the extent to which they are being demonstrated, and how the school will evaluate the effectiveness of approaches intended to strengthen them. With appropriate teacher guidance and feedback, all students should develop strategies for self-monitoring and collaborative evaluation of their performance in relation to suitable criteria. Self-assessments might involve students examining and discussing various kinds of evidence, making judgments about their progress, and setting further goals.

Learning areas
The learning area statements (pages 18–33) describe the essential nature of each learning area, how it can contribute to a young person’s education, and how it is structured. These statements, rather than the achievement objectives, should be the starting point for developing programmes of learning suited to students’ needs and interests. Schools are then able to select achievement objectives to fit those programmes. None of the strands in the required learning areas is optional, but in some learning areas, particular strands may be emphasised at different times or in different years. Schools should have a clear rationale for doing this and should ensure that each strand receives due emphasis over the longer term. Links between learning areas should be explored. This can lead, for example, to units of work or broad programmes designed to: • develop students’ knowledge and understandings in relation to major social, political, and economic shifts of the day, for example, through studies of Asia and the Pacific Rim; • develop students’ financial capability, positioning them to make well-informed financial decisions throughout their lives.

Future focus
Future-focused issues are a rich source of learning opportunities. They encourage the making of connections across the learning areas, values, and key competencies, and they are relevant to students’ futures. Such issues include: • sustainability – exploring the long-term impact of social, cultural, scientific, technological, economic, or political practices on society and the environment; • citizenship – exploring what it means to be a citizen and to contribute to the development and well-being of society; • enterprise – exploring what it is to be innovative and entrepreneurial; • globalisation – exploring what it means to be part of a global community and to live amongst diverse cultures.

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