Matt Skilton

Muritai School Curriculum for Learning

2010-10-12T14:30:00.005+13:00

For this blog entry I wanted to share with you what we call the front section of our schools 'Curriculum for learning'. This document has been developed through a collaborative process of self-review and consultation over the past few years. Its principle function is to put in action the set direction for student learning outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC p. 6) and to develop the competencies they need for study, work, and lifelong learning so they can all go on to realize their true potential. The 'Curriculum for Learning' document aims to improve children's learning through quality teaching and learning programmes, practices, strategies and opportunities.

It supports our children to:
o Interact with others who are outside Eastbourne and in the wider world.
o Develop the skills required to synthesize information and create useful knowledge.
o Improve their achievement in the foundation competencies of literacy and numeracy.
o Be competitive by nature, to improve and excel, but also collaborative and cooperative in their learning and social context.
o Embrace change and learn to be collaborative problem-solvers.
o Achieve across a broader set of domains: Tikanga Maori, Learning Languages, The Arts and Sport…
o Make connections so they can see real purpose for their learning, and enable students to perceive the natural relationships between the disciplines that makeup our comprehensive curriculum.

At Muritai School we recognize that achieving our vision, involves contributions from our whole school community and in particular the teaching staff. Through adopting a collaborative process when writing and constructing the schools curriculum aims to encourage teachers to:
o Utilize real life contemporary issues as a focus for their teaching programs.
o To plan and work collaboratively, utilizing individual skills and abilities and as a means of support for each other.
o Differentiate learning so that their teaching programs cater for the relevant needs of all students within the classroom.

I have attached the link to the page on our schools website where you can download a pdf version of our 'Curriculum for Learning'.

http://www.muritai.school.nz/pages/information.php

School Culture and Student Survey

2010-08-27T09:19:00.007+12:00

As part of my Deputy Principal role I am currently writing a report for our Board of Trustees on what we call 'The Heart of the School'. The report looks at various aspects of the school culture with particular interest in reviewing how things are going, if strategies are working as intended and what we could perhaps be doing better for our kids. Put simply we want to reflect and review if our school culture is continuing to have a positive impact for students and their learning.

When writing such a report it is important to also consider the views of the students! To do this staff surveyed their students by having them reflect and feedback thoughts on 3 questions.

1. What do you like about Muritai School?
2. What do Muritai teachers do to help you be the best that you can be?
3. What could be different to make Muritai School an even better place?

Implementation of the survey was kept very simple. Junior teachers scribed student ideas and thoughts while the Y4-8 teachers organised their classes in to small groups. Scribers recorded group responses ensuring everyone contributed to each of the questions. I then collected each class’s feedback and have presented the findings for each question using the illustrative online resource 'wordle'. I have since shared the respective 'wordless' with teams and have displayed them in the staffroom.

Feedback from staff about the student survey process was very positive. General feeling was:

There was high level of positive feedback about student-staff relationships which is extremely reassuring.
Students enjoyed being able to have their say.
Helped confirm staff feeling that the school is a safe, supportive and enjoyable place to be for the children.
There were some interesting ideas for future improvement that teachers said they wouldn’t have thought important.

I have included 2-3 examples of the 'wordles' below.

What Y5/6 like about our school:

What our Y3/4 children think our teachers do well to help them be the best that they can be:

What our Y1/2 children though could be different to help Muritai School be even better:

Two thirds of Pupils Failing New Stanadards

2010-08-20T11:58:00.007+12:00

An article on stuff.co.nz shares findings from a report analyzing the governments 'National Standards' education policy. The research was carried out by an independent education think-tank, the NZ Council for Educational Research (NZCER). The council used its pool of results from the Progressive Achievement Tests to model how many children would meet the Government's maths standards.

The report highlights that two-thirds of children are failing to met the standards in the first year of the implementation of this primary school initiative, with serious problems exposed over their consistency.

To read this article click on the link below:

Two-thirds-of-pupils-failing-new-standards

This week I was fortunate enough to attend a professional learning workshop where I was able to talk to teachers and Principals from other schools across the Wellington region, mainly about how they are going about implementing the standards. It was interesting to discover that there were noticeable variations in what levels of achievement were deemed to be 'at' each of the standards. This should be of real concern to the ministry as from the dozen or so schools I spoke to it would be impossible to make any comparisons what so ever on student achievement, not just between the schools I spoke with but nationwide. It was also felt that the subjective nature of the OTJ's was causing real concern for teachers, especially when trying to make mid year judgements.

League Tables

2010-08-02T12:55:00.006+12:00

A recent stuff.co.nz article says that 'Primary school league tables are back on the agenda, with Education Minister Anne Tolley now saying they are inevitable.'

After setting up a think tank to try to find a way to stop data from the new National Standards being used to rank schools against one another the minister has now said no-one had come up with an acceptable solution that could stop league tables. To read this article click on the link below:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/3977280/League-tables-in-primary-schools-now-inevitable

Analyizing School Wide Data

2010-08-02T11:21:00.008+12:00

At the end of last term teachers shared with parents their child's achievement against the three national standards at the mid-year interviews . Since then I have completed a school wide analysis of the results collected across all 8 year groups. The findings have been very predictable and have not highlighted any cohort groups with strengths or weaknesses that we weren't already aware of. This is largely due to the fact that our teachers already knew how well their students were doing through the implementation and use of tried and proven assessment tools such as AsTTle and PAT maths.

Having now gained a little experience working with national standards data I am still not really sure of what the benefits will be for improving student learning? I'd be very interested in hearing from other schools who have been able to achieve this.

Minister Speaking at Annual Principals Conference

2010-07-02T07:53:00.005+12:00

Today Education Minister Anne Tolley is speaking at the annual Principals conference in Queenstown. This is the day after the NZ Principals Federation has overwhelmingly voted to oppose national standards. The standards were opposed in three remits:

1st =Stated the federation had determined national standards were not delivering the outcomes they intended,.

2nd = The only way forward was to seek a complete revision of national standards in partnership with the sector and the minister and that this process should be actioned with urgency.

3rd = Was a decision to advise the minister that it supported the regional associations of Southland and Auckland, which recommended principals withdraw attendance at national standards training.

To find out more click on the news link below:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3877176/Minister-to-face-schools-rebellion

Mid-Year Reporting Process

2010-06-25T15:21:00.004+12:00

The up coming parent-teacher interviews will be the first time parents will receive information about how well their child is tracking against the national standards. With interviews only being 15 minutes we wanted to maximise the time available to focus on each child's strengths and next learning steps. To help with this the school has created a movie that clearly explains the reporting process with particular reference to:

1. How teachers make judgements on student achievement against each of the national standards.
2. How teachers will present this information at the interview.

The movie was filmed by two of our senior students who are involved with Muritai TV.

Using 3 Forms of Assessment

2010-06-22T10:03:00.003+12:00

Understanding how we will report national standards

2010-06-15T11:58:00.024+12:00

The purpose of this blog entry is to provide our parent community with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the format used when reporting their child's achievement against each National Standard. Teachers will use the relative progress chart (see images below) to illustrate where each student is achieving against both the standard statements and accompanying 'key characteristics', in reading, writing and maths. It is hoped that by familiarizing our parents with the progress charts less time will be spent explaining what they show therefore freeing up more time to focus on discussing more important things such as progress and next learning steps.

Things to consider:

It is important to understand that students start at different points and progress in their learning in different ways and at different rates from one another.
This is a mid year teacher judgment on how your child is 'tracking' against an end of year standard.
Double click on the images to make them larger.

Reading: The standard addresses the overall purpose of reading and learning. It does not distinguish all the items of knowledge or specific skills and attitudes that students use as they read. Instructional reading text levels are based on both an accuracy rate in reading text and comprehension.

Writing: The standard addresses the overall purpose of writing in learning. It does not distinguish all the items of knowledge or specific skills and attitudes that students use as they write. Student's writing skills have been assessed using student's samples of writing. It is not expected that students will show all the skills or understandings for a level.

Maths: Students knowledge and strategies in number, geometry, algebra, measurement and statistics are all considered when assigning a level. The expectations for number are the most critical for meeting a standard. It is not expected that students will show all the skills or understanding for a level.

We strongly recommend that parents take the time to familiarize themselves with the above progress charts in order get the most out of the up coming parent-teacher interviews. Although it is important for teachers to report against the standards our top priority will be to share the strengths and next learning steps. Teachers will unpack this by talking through evidence in from samples of your child's work.

Mid Year Written Reporting

2010-06-15T11:07:00.016+12:00

On Friday 25th June Muritai School parents will receive a mid-year report about their child's learning. The main purpose of the report is to inform parents about how well their child is doing. The report includes a 5 point scale that clearly identifies learning strengths and areas of weakness. Teachers have elaborated on key aspects of each child's learning in the comments boxes where they have also shared what the next learning steps will be.

It is hoped that parents will read through the report and identify any areas of their child's learning they want to discuss. They can bring these questions with them to the following weeks parent-teacher interviews. Their teachers will talk through samples of student work to illustrate the strengths, weaknesses and identify next learning steps.

There are two distinctive report formats. We have a Y1/2 junior report and different report for Y3 through to Year 8. Each syndicate report has been slightly modified to reflect the increasing achievement expectations for each year level. I have included two examples below, a Year 1 and a Year 5/6 report.

Double click on the images to enlarge.

Year 1 Report:

Year 5/6 Report:

Collaborative Problem-solving

2010-06-01T09:54:00.011+12:00

At Muritai School we embrace challenge and pride ourselves in our culture of collaborative problem solving. A recent example of this can be seen with the Year 3/4 teaching staff who worked collaboratively to develop observation sheets aimed to assist teachers in the decision making process for national standards. The attachment below is a screen grab of the Y4 reading observation sheet (double click on it to enlarge the image).

The observation sheet is designed to assist teachers when making overall teacher judgments. The diagram below shows how teachers intend to use observations, assessment data and the national standard together in triangulation when making an OTJ.

Teacher observations will always be subjective and depend greatly on the teacher. It is hoped that by defining and prioritizing specific areas of focus for each year group the level of subjectivity between classrooms and from year to year will be greatly reduced.

The observation sheets are by no means the perfect fix. Students each have varying knowledge, skills and attitudes across the learning areas of reading, writing and mathematics. Having to tick just one box as an overall judgment of achievement neglects to acknowledge the specific strengths and weaknesses of each student

The purpose of todays blog entry is to simply share with you an example of how our staff work collaboratively when faced with a problem to overcome. It is through such a supportive culture that I believe we are as prepared as we can be for reporting to parents at the end of this term.

Learning from others

2010-05-21T11:17:00.005+12:00

In this post I would like to thank Cockle Bay School for sharing the work they have been doing as part of their efforts to implement National Standards on their website . Although the intended audience for this is more than likely their parent community it has been great for us to learn about the approaches and strategies being developed and used by other schools. Of particular interest has been the 'Progress Grids' that they have created (click on the image link below to be able to download pdf files of each progress grid).

What I like about these grids is that they are a nice visual which help parents see where their child is achieving against the respective standard. They also provide the teacher with a visual tool to direct the teacher-parent conversation towards student progress and ultimately strengths, weaknesses and next learning steps. I have shared the progress grids with our teaching staff who found them beneficial when trying to differentiate between the respective standards.

This year our school wide umbrella theme is "Learning from others". Thank you Cockle Bay school for allowing us to model this learning theme.

Using Assessment and Mid-year Reporting

2010-05-03T12:26:00.008+12:00

At Muritai we have been on a journey of self-review and reflection for some time now. We continue to use student achievement data to:

Inform decision making and for strategic planning.
Inform our teaching and learning programmes.
Help develop each students understanding of what they are doing well, not so well and what their next learning steps will be.
As a means of monitoring student progress against set expectations. (individual or groups)
Support the schools commitment towards on-going self-review and raising student achievement.

Developing student awareness and understanding of their learning has been an area of focus for our school over the past 4-5 years. It supports the vision of the NZ curriculum in that we want our children to be confident, connected, actively involved and life-long learners; as well as the schools vision of 'being the best that you can be'. With our mid-year written reports due to go out in week 10 of this term, staff at Muritai are aware for the potential for getting caught up in the National Standards debate. Our priority for the mid-year report will be to use these as a vehicle for informing parents about their child's level of achievement, level of progress and next learning steps. The written reports will then be followed up by teacher-parent conferences the following week. Here teachers will be able to give greater meaning to the findings highlighted in the written report by talking through examples of work presented in the student portfolio. Although there has been much emphasis from the ministry on written reports being in 'plain language' this year, feedback from our community surveys suggest that the most useful means for developing an understanding of their child's learning comes from the parent-teacher conference.

Tukutuku Korero - Education Gazette

2010-05-03T11:13:00.007+12:00

The New Zealand Education Gazette is the official magazine of the Ministry of Education. It is published under the authority of the Minister of Education, every couple of weeks. This year I have been following the Q & A on National Standards section as each edition is rolled out. Volume 89 Number 7 is the most recent and I thought I'd share with you the second of two questions answered as an example and one that I personally found quite interesting.

q&A – national standards

Q. How many students are expected to achieve the standards?

A. National Standards are designed to inform teaching and learning so that the next steps for each child are clearly identified. They have been set at a level that will ensure students who meet them are able to read, write and do maths well enough to support their learning in all other learning areas. The standards have been designed so that students who meet them will be on track to achieve NCEA Level 2.

Based on current data we estimate that in reading approximately:

50 percent of students are likely to be at or above the standard after 1 year at school

60 percent are likely to be at or above the standard at Year 4

60 percent are likely to be at or above the standard at Year 8.

We estimate that in mathematics approximately:

80 percent of students are likely to be at or above the standard after 1 year at school

70 percent are likely to be at or above the standard at Year 4

50 percent are likely to be at or above the standard at Year 8.

In every classroom children achieve at different levels and progress at different rates; some children will be working well beyond their peers, and others will be working well below. Principals, BOTs and teachers need to set annual goals for their students and their schools that are challenging, but achievable for them.

Mid year reporting

2010-04-21T10:25:00.012+12:00

It has been a while since my last post but since then there has been further work going on behind the scenes here at Muritai in relation to the National Standards. With mid year reporting set for the end of term teachers have been familiarizing themselves with the 'key characteristics' that sit directly under each of the standard statements.

WRITTEN REPORTS:
The first of this years written reports will be sent home in week 10 of this term. The most notable and obvious change will be the inclusion of the 'overall teacher judgments' indicating where a student is achieving against each of the standard statements. It is important to point out here that teachers will be making these judgments in light of each students 'progress' towards achieving the standard. That is we are reporting in June on a standard that is to be achieved by the end of the school year in December. Making such a judgment will not be easy and will involve considerable time and effort. Teachers will continue to be involved in moderating assessment information collaboratively and ultimately be concerned with using this information to help inform programmes and goal setting to best meet the needs of the children.

PARENT INTERVIEWS:
In week 11 following the written report going home, parents will be invited to attend an interview to discuss their child's achievement, progress and next learning steps with the teacher. The face to face meeting allows the opportunity for teachers to be able to explain what was written in the report and talk through various work samples presented in the student portfolio. By doing so parents will hopefully gain a greater appreciation of what their child can and can't yet do. As well as provide a better understanding of what their child's next learning steps are and how they can support their learning at home.

Information for booking a time for these interviews will be available later in the term.

Moderating National Standards

2010-03-23T15:19:00.004+13:00

Moderation is a collaborative process aimed to assist teachers in making dependable decisions about student progress and achievement. At Muritai we have been using the moderation processes for a number of years to increase assessment dependability between classrooms (of the same year groups) and for tracking student progress as they move through the different year levels.

"Making consistent, reliable and valid decisions across different points in time is important when schools report student progress or compare cohort data with historical information."

(NZ Curriculum Website)

THE MODERATION PROCESS:

The moderation process begins with the planning of teaching, learning and assessment.
Moderation involves a group of teachers discussing evidence of student learning.
Assessments of the evidence are made using specific shared criteria.
The criteria may be exemplified through annotated examples and other national resources (e.g. Numeracy Development Project Books or the New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars).
Moderation may involve teachers within a group, within and across a school or from different schools.

WHY IS MODERATING IMPORTANT?

Increasing the dependability of the assessment information teachers gather improves the decisions they make about student learning.
Teacher-guided moderation between students helps them to develop their skills of self and peer-assessment.
Moderation has a direct, positive impact on teaching and learning as both teacher and student develop shared expectations and understanding of what quality work looks like and what criteria define it.
Both students’ and teachers’ assessment capability can be enhanced.
Can also encourage the development of teachers’ self-review skills and inform professional development decision-making.

HOW WILL THE MODERATION PROCESS HELP TEACHERS MAKE OTJs?

Teachers at Muritai will use many forms of assessment evidence when making their OTJ (Overall Teacher Judgements) against the National Standards. When teachers draw together evidence to form an overall teacher judgement there is a need to ensure consistency of those judgements between teachers. At Muritai we already have an established moderation process and in relation to the national standards will use this to assist when:

Interpreting the national standards.
Making judgments based on the assessment information gathered.

We have found this process of sharing ideas really beneficial in the co-constructing of the learning environment for the children. We hope that it will also provide us with dependable information that can be discussed with parents, families and whānau.

For more information about moderation I encourage you to click on the following link:

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/Key-information/Fact-sheets/Moderation

National Standards: 'Can We Learn From Other's Mistakes'

2010-03-15T12:52:00.004+13:00

John Hattie, Professor of Auckland University's Faculty of Education and Director of asTTle, calls for clear policy and professional debate to accompany the new national standards. He describes 3 issues associated with national standards in other countries, and urges teachers to be "change agents for the system". The 3 issues discussed are:

1. Accommodation – excluding those students identified as struggling

2. Retention – holding students back

3. Changing the Standards – Making them more achievable to change the average pass rate.

John also talks about the need to put in clear policies alongside National Standards to demonstrate how we are not going to go down these 3 pathways - unlike the US and UK. He encourages debate amongst the profession and supports the idea of an independent review that will measure the improvement National Standards is/is not having on teaching and learning; and for the review to determine if such a policy should continue indefinitely or be scrapped.

To hear John’s presentation click on the link: http://www.edtalks.org/play.php?vid=311

Parent Information Evening Presentation - National Standards

2010-03-03T12:07:00.000+13:00

/Users/Teacher/Desktop/National Standards Parentpresentation March2010

View more presentations from skilty73.

QUESTIONS?

2010-03-03T09:38:00.008+13:00

Thank you to the parents who took the time to attend last night's parent information evening. I hope you found the presentations both informative and reassuring? I would also like to express my appreciation to those who contributed to the discussions by sharing your views and/or airing your concerns. Although there were differing points of view on some issues it was clear that we all agree that our focus remains with the children and their learning needs. It is important the school and home continue to work in partnership as I believe this is the most effective way for us to achieve our school's vision of each child reaching their full potential:

'being the best that they can be'.

If you have any other views you would like to share, questions you would like answered, or just want to seek clarification on an issue relating to National standards then please click on the 'comments' link directly below this post. You can select to be anonymous if you wish. I will then use future posts as a means to share with you my findings and continue to keep you posted with the school's progress.

National Standards - article of interest?

2010-02-22T11:01:00.005+13:00

School sends petition protesting against National Standards home to parents:

Kaori Normal School make the headlines over national standards. Principal Diane Leggett has apologised to parents after complaints were made about sending home the petition that protested against the Government's national standards. If you are interested in reading more click on the link:

Head-sorry-on-standards-survey

PARENT INFORMATION EVENING TUESDAY 2 MARCH 2010

2010-02-18T11:34:00.005+13:00

Muritai School is hosting an 'Information Evening on NATIONAL STANDARDS' on TUESDAY 2 MARCH from 6:45pm - 8pm (to be held in the school hall).

THE PURPOSE OF THE EVENING IS TO:

Help our parent community gain a better understanding of the conflicting arguments and potential impact such a policy may have on your child's learning.
Provide insight as to the considerations and work involved when implementing the National Standards policy.
Provide an opportunity for our parent community to share their views/ideas for reporting student achievements and progress to parents.

SUGGESTED AGENDA:

WELCOME
FACTS AND PERCEPTIONS: Sharing the arguments for and against. Trying to make sense of all the media coverage, expert's opinions and government agenda.
SCHOOL POSITION: The view of the teaching staff and what work is required in implementing this policy in 2010. Share our concerns and strategies for over coming these.
OUR IMPLEMENTATION PLAN:

Staff PD – Understanding the standards for reporting accurately – in an attempt to develop a robust process where consistent ‘judgments’ can be made.
Review of current reporting processes.

5. REPORTING TO PARENTS:

What a parent should expect to find out.
What is meant by ‘plain language’ reporting - reporting on both student achievement and student progress?
The role parents are expected to play in their child’s learning.
Share the suggested formats for the written reports and ask for input from parent audience.

Understanding National Standards

2010-02-17T20:12:00.005+13:00

Although the National Standards are fairly simple in theory we are quickly learning that there is a lot to consider and get our heads round if we are to be confident and competent in implementing them in 2010. The ministry have provided a professional development plan and have promised seminars to support schools and boards of trustees, but we have yet to hear when these will be.
In fact it seems to me that schools are being left to there own devices to work through the literacy and numeracy National Standards documents and sift through the various web resources. So I wanted to quickly share with you what we have been doing at Muritai in the short time we have been back. So far we have:
1. Held a staff meeting where we unpacked the reading and writing standards in teams.

2. Begun a process of review of how we will be reporting National Standards to our students and parent community.

3. Have planned a parent information evening to be held at 6:45pm on Tuesday 2 March in the school hall.

4. Continued our on-going self-review of current assessment practices to check that teachers will have sufficient evidence to make an 'overall teacher judgment' or referred to as an OTJ. Making an overall teacher judgment will mean drawing on evidence gathered up to a particular point in time and analysing it in order to make an informed, balanced judgment about what constitutes the 'best fit' in terms of the student’s actual performance – how it lines up with what is expected in terms of the relevant standard.

Teachers will use the assessment evidence they gather primarily to:

support students in using assessment information to inform their own learning
determine the next teaching and learning steps
plan classroom programmes.

Getting started on National Standards

2010-02-11T16:07:00.006+13:00

This blog is aimed at helping our school parent community understand and learn more about National Standards. It will also be used as a record of our schools 'learning journey' as we try to make come to grips with the standards. I hope you will find this blog useful and informing.

The first year of National Standards in New Zealand primary schools has begun and the government continues to remain 'staunch' on its election promise, despite the many concerns raised by various educational experts, the NZEI (Primary teachers union) and NZPF (NZ Principals Federation).

Muritai staff are curious to investigate and improve our understanding about the standards so we can make the best of the 'situation' for our students. So on Monday our teaching staff attended a presentation that looked more closely at the rationale behind the standards, arguments 'for' and 'against' and touched on the possible impact these may have on our current assessment and reporting procedures. It also provided the opportunity for teachers to dissect the ‘reading’ standard for their classroom level and talk openly about their thoughts, opinions and ideas for moving forward. When teams shared back from their own discussions it was interesting to note that many more questions were raised. Although the standards seem very simple in theory there is the potential for them to be counter productive. Our staff don’t want the standards to become so obtrusive and narrowly defined that they detract us from the very thing we are trying to achieve - students learning and being the best that they can be'.

If you are interested in finding out more about the National Standards I recommend you visit the following website by clicking on the link: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards

NZ CURRICULUM PARENT INFORMATION EVENING

2009-10-29T11:13:00.003+13:00

Thank you to all those parents who turned out for the parent information evening with guest speaker Chris Arcus. Chris talked through a presentation where he explained the rationale behind the revised New Zealand Curriculum and the challenges schools face as they work towards fully implementing this for the start of 2010.

The NZ Curriculum is a statement (document) of what is deemed important in education. It takes as its starting point a vision of our young people as 'lifelong learners' who are confident and creative, connected, and actively involved. It includes a clear set of principles on which to base curriculum decision-making. It sets out values that are to be encouraged, modeled, and explored. It defines 5 key competencies that are critical to sustained learning and effective participation in society and that underline the emphasis on lifelong learning (TRUMP: Thinking, Relating to others, Understanding symbols, text and numbers, Managing self, Participating and contributing, ) .

Key Messages for schools and teachers are:

Curriculum design and review is an ongoing, continuous process.
Schools, with their communities, make decisions about how to give effect to the National Curriculum to best address the particular needs, interests and circumstances of the school's students and community.
A school curriculum clarifies priorities for student learning, the ways in which those priorities will be addressed, and how student progress and the quality of teaching and learning will be assessed.
At the heart of a school curriculum is the teachers making and acting on decisions, based on evidence about what to teach and how to teach it.

If you are not familiar with the NZ Curriculum and would like to learn more I recommend you visit the tki website by clicking on the link below: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum

New Curriculum - Teacher Only Day

2009-08-05T11:56:00.010+12:00

At Muritai we are having the second of two ministry funded teacher only days on Friday 21st August. The day provides teachers with a rare opportunity to work together to reflect on what progress has been made and to collaboratively plan for future actions in further implementing the new New Zealand curriculum. So far this year we have reviewed how we teach Literacy, Numeracy, Tikanga Maori - as a direct link to teaching learning languages, Health and PE and Science. We aim to use our findings to help rewrite these sections of our school curriculum framework.

The new curriculum does bring with it some changes to the way we go about educating our children. An example of such change is the Ministry drive for schools to promote what they are calling ‘Key Competencies’. There are five Key Competencies that have been identified: Thinking, Using Language, Symbols and Text, Managing Self, Relating to Others and Participating and Contributing. They are more complex than skills, drawing on knowledge, attitudes and values in ways that lead to action - the key competencies are becoming a rich and powerful component of our schools newly revised curriculum framework. I describe the key competencies as being the high level abilities that people need to be successful in life and engage in lifelong learning. This term we are focusing on learning how to ‘relate to others’ and ‘managing self'. It is my view that teaching that incorporates the key competencies helps to enable students to meet our school vision of "being the best that they can be"

For more information on Key Competencies click on the link: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/the_new_zealand_curriculum_online/Key-competencies