Te Mātaiaho | The New Zealand Curriculum
Curriculum Update – Term 1, 2025
From Term 1 this year, all NZ primary schools are required to teach the refreshed Maths (Year 0-8) and English (Year 0-6 at the stage) curriculum areas. Please refer to my blog post from 6 November for a more detailed explanation of the changes. Your child will have, on average, one hour of reading, writing and maths each day. This includes oral language (listening and speaking) and learning that is integrated across other areas throughout the day.
Curriculum levels are now ‘Phases of learning’
- Phase 1 (Years 0-3): Thriving in environments rich in literacy and numeracy
- Phase 2 (Year 4-6): Expanding horizons of knowledge and collaborating
- Phase 3 (Years 7-8): Seeing ourselves in the wider world and advocating with and for others
- Phases 4 onwards will be covered in secondary school.
Each year is designed to build on the previous year’s learning. Teachers will regularly assess students to determine progress, achievement and next steps.
Mathematics & Statistics at Ararira Springs Primary
Students at ASP learn in an environment rich with mathematics. Learning in maths may look a bit different to when you were at school: children are involved in both explicit instruction with the teacher and more student-led rich tasks which helps them discuss their thinking and reasoning in maths. Our teachers have been involved in a range of professional development opportunities and are eager to meet the needs of all learners through needs-based instruction. Students who need additional support or extension are catered for in the class programme. In Years 5-8, some students will partake in Otago Problem Solving challenges and Cantamaths (Year 7-8 only).
English at Ararira Springs Primary
Our students from New Entrants to Year 8 all take part in a Structured Literacy approach to English. Through explicit, direct instruction, teaching and learning aims to meet student needs and the curriculum’s requirements. Students who need targeted support are supported by their teacher, a learning assistant, or in a small literacy group with our SENCO and Literacy lead teacher, Shelley Smith. Students who need extension are catered for in class and offered opportunities throughout the year to participate in additional literacy projects.
Assessment and reporting
Some assessments will change so we can analyse the impact of the refreshed curriculum. Assessment in a primary school setting is varied and often, from observing a child during group lessons or independent tasks, to analysing work samples and formal testing.
We will be reporting on your child’s progress against their year-level expectations in Terms 2 & 4. It may not be easy to track your child’s progress and achievement between the old and new graphs, as the new curriculum expectations and design are structured quite differently. We will help whānau understand the changes to reporting in Term 2.
Maths whānau information evening
We warmly welcome you to join us on Tuesday 1 April from 7-8pm in our school library (Pūtahi). Anna Grigor and Emma Woolford (Maths lead teachers) along with the maths curriculum team will be discussing the ASP maths curriculum and sharing some at-home games and activities you could try at the different year levels throughout our school. Please feel free to bring your children along.
How you can help at home
A strong home-school partnership gives every child the best chance to make progress in their learning. Please ask your child what they have been learning at school and see how you could practice at home. Follow your child’s team blog for information about learning in English and Maths. This link has ideas to support your child at home for each year level of schooling.
Recent Comments