At Kahurangi we are guided by a national curriculum.  It guides what your child learns at school and what we teach at Kahurangi. At school your child will continue to develop a range of values and key competencies, or capabilities, that they need to succeed in life. These are all woven into our teaching and learning programmes.

We do have a big focus on reading, writing and maths in the primary years, as these are really important foundation skills that everyone needs in order to be able to do well in life.  Children need strong reading, writing and maths skills to progress through the levels of the National Curriculum and be able to achieve at secondary school.

Key competencies

Competencies are abilities and capabilities that people use to live, learn, work and contribute as active members of their communities.

The New Zealand Curriculum identifies 5 key competencies that it has a focus on children developing throughout their time at school:

• Thinking – is about using thinking processes to make sense of information, experiences and ideas.
• Using language, symbols, and texts – working with, being able to understand, and making sense of the codes (languages and symbols) in which knowledge is expressed.
• Managing self – having self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and seeing oneself as a capable learner.
• Relating to others – is about interacting effectively with a range of different people in a range of different situations, including things like being able to listen well, recognise different points of view, and share ideas.
• Participating and contributing – being involved in communities, such as family, whānau, school, and be able to contribute and make connections with other people.

Learning Areas

There are 8 subjects in the New Zealand curriculum.  These are;

• English 
• the arts (includes Visual Art, Drama, Dance and Music)
• health and physical education
• learning languages (includes Te Reo Māori)
• mathematics
• science
• social science
• technology.

The values and competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum are woven into these learning areas. They are designed to encourage enjoyment of learning and the ability to think critically, manage oneself, set goals, overcome obstacles and get along with others – the attributes students need to succeed as adults.

Further information

The National Curriculum documents have a wealth of information about what your child learns throughout their school life and can help to understand the learning that you will be seeing at school.  You can read more about the National Curriculum on the Ministry’s Te Kete Ipurangi web portal for education.  The New Zealand Curriculum (This website also has an English translation of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.)