Refreshed English learning area
The English learning area has been refreshed as part of Te Mātaiaho | the refreshed New Zealand curriculum.
It will need to be used in schools and kura from the start of 2025.
The Ministry engaged widely with the education sector, ākonga, whānau, iwi and communities. Read our feedback reports here.
This page includes a range of supports to help schools and kura start using the refreshed English learning area, including guides, videos and classroom materials.
Guide for getting started
The guide for getting started will help you:
- Learn about the key changes in English
- Find starting points to explore and use the refreshed curriculum content
- Connect to resources, guidance material, supports, and PLD.
Progression in Action
The Progression in Action guidance supports you to notice the cumulative depth and breadth from one Progress Outcome to the next to help you design rich learning opportunities for your students.
By viewing them as a complete set, you can see progression across the phases of the learner pathway to ensure consistent expectations in your programme planning.
Planning
The planning guide, templates, and examples support you to develop your English programme or individual units. They link the whakapapa design of Te Mātaiaho to the planning process.
Learning area content cards
School leaders and kaiako can use the cards to plan an English programme. These cards are available to download below (we recommend you print them single sided).
Video example of kahui ako participating in a planning session with curriculum content cards
Learning in Action Videos
These videos show teachers trialling new English curriculum content. They discuss their planning processes, and a range of teaching strategies and learning activities.
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 0-3, Video 1:
Decision making and making connection
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Natalie King, Year 2 Teacher — Robertson Road School
My hope is that this new refresh is going to encourage risk takers and critical thinkers and empowered learners. It empowers us to look specifically at the learners in front of us and where we are in the world. That is a huge responsibility.
Connecting to place and community
Notice how kaiako:
- Build on existing community relationships
- Value ākonga knowledge and experiences to plan rich learning
Natalie King, Year 2 Teacher — Robertson Road School
We have a really strong community and what we've found is parents are actually quite excited about the possibility of helping their children at home. I think that didn't at all happen overnight to get this relationship going and now it's not a one way street from either of us and it's really important to foster those relationships but also to have a positive relationship and to share the real successes that we have. It's more than just the children's academic success. One of the most powerful teaching tools that I think that I have is I take the time to know my kids and I make sure that I'm going to be presenting learning in a way that they're interested in. I have their attention from the get go. One of the things that stood out to me that I really do appreciate about the new refresh is that it calls on the children's strengths already, their identity and it places a lot of value in that in their cultural experiences and their cultural heritage. We have a really rich, cultural diverse background for our children. A lot of them are first or second generation from the Pacific and they come with pride and that is something that we encourage and we also build on. They come in with this excitement about who they are and where they're from and what they know and we can use that to channel and to redirect what we're doing and why we're doing it.
Mātaioho | School curriculum design and review
Notice how kaiako:
- Learn together and make use of the expertise within the school
- Plan purposeful activities
- Make connections between the current curriculum and Te Mātaiaho to inform change
Natalie King, Year 2 Teacher — Robertson Road School
Collaborative is really important here. It's something that is a strength of ours. We have an amazing SLT that took a lot of time quite early on and we went through collaboratively and looked at the new curriculum. We're just stepping into the UKD. We have looked at it in terms of as a team, where do we feel our strengths already align and then looked at it, highlighted those areas as a team that we feel that that's something we want to talk about more, get more dialogue about how we as a team can better meet these needs. What do we need to change, adjust and what resources might we need? It's not completely new, it is a refresh. But as a team we want to be as prepared as we can. That gives you confidence. I have a very cross curriculum approach and this new document really encourages that. The big ideas, what do we need to understand? What do we want our children to know as they move forward to be successful out in society, in Aotearoa and across the world? I've been looking over again at Māui and the sun and we can make really powerful connections with Aotearoa and our Māori students here, but also at our school, Pacifica is the majority of our children and there's some really exciting comparisons that can be made and it encourages the kids to be critical thinkers without so much encouragement. I teach in the junior years and even just comparing two images of the sun, they're making those connections incredibly quickly from the patterns of the sun's face, the shapes of the sun, the colours, they're very quick at making those connections. Kids want to be empowered and they want to see themselves in what we're teaching them.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako plan for teaching by:
- Using and mixing different modes
Natalie King, Year 2 Teacher — Robertson Road School
So through our topic of Māui and the sun, we had multiple physical texts of the book. We watched at least three different videos and then we also listened to an audiobook, we watched it in freeze frame, so really immersing the kids in a lot of different varieties of the same text that empowers them as well. I have the opportunity to explore more. What else could I be using? Is there a book I haven't heard of? Is there something that I haven't used before? We've got pen and paper, but what else can we do? We've read them the story we have and we've drawn the story. We've done that too, but we've done a lot of other things as well, which really gets all the children involved. And there isn't this standard, what it should look like at the end. Using a wide range of resources and devices and so forth, has really meant that it's really inclusive for all children and not only on their ability levels, but also for their interests. And it's been really an opportunity to see all kids really get behind and get excited about different aspects, but still meeting the same criteria. I absolutely believe that we have some of the best teachers in the world, but we can look and say, what can we do better? What can we do more to make sure that when the kids leave our classroom and go to the next one, that they're ready, they're excited that they want to be there and they want to take learning with both hands so that when they walk out they can be whoever they want to be.
Special thanks to:
Robertson Road School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 0-3, Video 2:
Progress Outcomes and Understand, Know, Do
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Mātairea | Supporting progress
Notice how kaiako:
- Create inclusive assessment tasks
- Plan from the Progress Outcome to provide ākonga with multiple opportunities to progress over time
Natalie King, Year 2 Teacher — Robertson Road School
The progress outcomes are a really powerful tool as a teacher, you know, that aligns where the kids are now, where do we want them to go? And we can look at it as a whole phase. You can look back at the previous years and you can look forward. In order to make the progress outcomes manageable. What I did for the Māui and the sun topic was look down and see what aligns nicely to what I'm planning on doing. And that was about just taking out bite sized pieces that are specific to what would be a meaningful lesson. Teaching children to retell a story is what really encourages that oral language, that critical thinking, and it flows on effects into all of our writing. The other thing that I was really honing in on was that discussion piece to be able to share and to hear and that weaves through Understand, Know, Do really really well. Can you listen to someone's opinion and can you then share your own opinion? Can you find your similarities and find your differences? Some of the really powerful tools that we have is about students collectively coming up with the success criteria. There's no point in just telling them and listing it and say off you go, write me something or show me something. So we collaboratively build what the success criteria of any task should look like. And also what's really important for them is providing examples, what should it look like? It's a really collaborative process but also it does have to be teacher led. We are working towards creating empowered learners that has to be at the forefront of what we're doing.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako:
- Link big ideas into specific contexts relevant to ākonga
- Use the progress outcomes and culturally responsive pedagogies of the Common Practice Model to design rich learning tasks
- Plan inclusively for all ākonga from the outset
Natalie King, Year 2 Teacher — Robertson Road School
The Understand, Know, and Do really aligns with how I put together a planning of a unit with my integrated approach. So I've found it really exciting to see those alignments and see that consistency in language and also to see that empowering of who we are as a nation of Aotearoa empowering but also getting the kids to really think critically about that. What does that mean to be in New Zealand and why is it important? And that you can be from a lot of different places and still be proud of being here and still be proud of the environment that we have that makes it different. For some of our children they identify as being from somewhere else that they haven't been to and we can give them the tools to be excited about both to a place they haven't been that is their home and the place that they live in here. That's through text selection, that's through rich learning experiences. And this refresh lets you do that and it encourages you to do that, to continue to broaden our horizons as teachers. As a school, one of our major focuses is on culturally responsive pedagogy and this really aligns with the Common Practice Model. For me, it's got two parts. One of the main things is about being culturally responsive, making sure that your teaching aligns with the children that are in front of you, and that is knowing your learners, knowing what's important to them, knowing who they are. The second part is certainly the area that I am most nervous and excited about exploring more is the use and integration of te reo Māori in my practice. That is fundamental. It's fundamental from a curriculum perspective and certainly from a New Zealand and Common Practice Model. Oral language is a really significant focus for me. It's woven through the Understand, Know, Do in a really key way. And if you do that well, you see that in the next topic. It comes up, and I'm seeing those words but also like, flourishing. I taught the children flourishing in an earlier topic, and I had a child who wrote, now we are flourishing because the sun is moving slowly, and he's six. And I got shivers because I was like, he's six, and he used flourishing correctly and in a kaitiakitanga, he's thinking, how does that impact us? And he put himself in that story. So for me, that's one of my big push areas is oral language, and how can I get the most out of that? And this new refresh lets me do that in a really powerful way.
Special thanks to:
Robertson Road School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 4-6, Video 1:
Decision making and planning, and connections with whānau, hapū, and iwi
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Natasha O’Connor, Year 5 & 6 Teacher — West Melton School
As a teaching team we came together and did a teacher inquiry around English and we focused on the reading and the writing and what we'd seen and what we wanted our ākonga to achieve. And when it came to the planning part of it, it tied in perfectly with our Journeys inquiry and when we looked at the revised curriculum all about storytelling and the Understand was about telling the stories of Aotearoa, the Do was telling our own personal stories. It just tied in perfectly and it made sense to use the revised curriculum as our planning document.
Mātaiahikā | Relationships with tangata whenua
Notice how kaiako:
- Build on existing community relationships and invite them to share their expertise
Natasha O’Connor, Year 5 & 6 Teacher — West Melton School
We've been using resources from our local iwi to guide and shape the stories that are important to our area. We've got our families involved more recently through Journey stories and the stories in our school tell about how our school was, why our school was here and even the building names based around things local to our area.
Mātaioho | School curriculum design and review
Notice how kaiako:
- Plan collaboratively
- Use the the pedagogical approaches and practices of the Common Practice Model to design rich learning experiences
- Make connections between the current curriculum and Te Mātaiaho to inform change
Natasha O’Connor, Year 5 & 6 Teacher — West Melton School
We have six teachers across our team and we wanted to not only show them how to teach explicitly for our ākonga, but we wanted them to know as well, how to plan really well. And the revised curriculum has been the perfect tool to demonstrate that. Last night we had ākonga conversations and the children were leading them themselves and so they were able to explain what it was that they were working on, the importance of their handwriting, learning the rules so that then they could apply that into their writing and into their reading.
Veisinia Singh, Team Leader year 4 — Robertson Road School
We always start our unit with student voice, so we ask them what they want to learn and this time it was natural disasters because of what's happening here in New Zealand. And then we collected information about it and then we talked to our senior management and other teachers about how to go deeper with our inquiry. One boy said to me that his auntie's house is not far from here, was also damaged in the flood and then the Tongan kids started talking about the volcanic eruption in Tonga. So we decided to go with that.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako plan for teaching by:
- Using and mixing different modes
Mandy Newcombe, Leader of Learning Year 5 & 6 — West Melton School
In our reading groups and our writing groups, we're listening to our students all the time and we're listening to what they're saying and from there we're then going back to our planning and changing it and differentiating it where we need to. We have mixed groups, we have a low floor, high ceiling, so there's all the same text but every child is able to engage and learn with that text and gain that understanding and do that critical analysis of what they're reading. We spent some time looking at our children and what their needs were and one of the things that we noticed was that they didn't write good sentences and in order to be an efficient storyteller you have to be able to write. We looked at the Know and connected the Do in the new curriculum and realised that it actually gave us scope to really develop what we were doing because they fit in and it gives us that ability to explicitly go back and teach our students what they needed to know.
Keegan, Year 6 student — West Melton School
In class, we are doing journey stories. How we are doing it is, we are drafting it, and then we are going to make it more interesting. Add nouns, adjectives, longer sentences and then we are going to put it onto a doc or slide and then we are going to put it on the TV to show the class.
Mandy Newcombe, Leader of Learning Year 5 & 6 — West Melton School
We are actually seeing quite a significant improvement in our students writing through that approach because they now understand what a sentence looks like. So then they can put that in motion or go back to that factual transactional writing and get that really strong component that we want to see coming through.
Special thanks to:
West Melton School
Robertson Road School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 4-6, Video 2:
Progress Outcomes and Understand, Know, Do
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Mātairea | Supporting progress
Notice how kaiako:
- Notice, recognise, and respond to ākonga needs
- Support progress through inclusive task design
- Provide ākonga with multiple opportunities to progress
Natasha O’Connor, Year 5 & 6 Teacher — West Melton School
The Understand, Know, Do outcomes are really explicit to both the teachers and to ākonga. They are displayed in our classrooms so that as teachers we can say hey, this is what we're working on here. So our learners have the option to choose how they want to tell their story. We've got learners that will probably want to do it digitally, we've got others that will just want to tell it and then depending on how they present or decide to present their story will depend on what other part of the rubric we end up doing. We've always used the notice, recognise and respond with our ākonga. We're constantly walking through the classroom, talking individually with children, having those learning conversations right then and there. One of the things we have noticed we've done is we don't feel so pressured to feel that we have to tick a box and say that we've done that part because the whole point is to come back to different points constantly during the phases.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako:
- Link big ideas into specific contexts relevant to ākonga
- Use the progress outcomes and the Common Practice Model to design rich learning tasks
- Plan inclusively for all ākonga from the outset
Mandy Newcombe, Leader of Learning Year 5 & 6 — West Melton School
When we started our learning journey for this term, we wanted to look at how we could use the refreshed English curriculum in order to inform our practice and our teaching along the way. And we took the Understand, Know, Do and weaved that through our planning, but also looked at the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories, looked at how we could do that through an English lens. What our aim is at the end of our unit is to actually have our students tell a whānau story. The idea is that they'll do it in a multimodal approach so that actually, they choose how they present their work. So whether it's an artwork, whether it's a story, whether they get up and they dramatically improvise their story, that's going to become their choice. We have gone through all the resources that are out there and purposely chosen ones that we think will engage with our learners. And we have looked at ones where we can take there's a different retell or a different version, different perspective of another of the same story being told by someone else and how they have those differences. What we've noticed in the new English curriculum through Te Mātaiaho is that those key competencies are going to be linked through those Do's that are coming through in the curriculum. So for us, the thinking tools that you would have coming through from the key competencies are contained for us in the critical analysis that our students are actually doing through their compare and contrast, through their looking at different texts. Within our planning we have chosen multiple Know's and Do's and we've weaved them together because we can see the connect when we explicitly teach to that, that our students are then going to have that knowledge to come through and develop what we're asking of them. Which in this case is a Journey story, but it could be any piece of writing. We read a story about Flanders Field from the perspective of birds because obviously we're talking about points of view. And then we gave them a picture that was of soldiers, a photo of soldiers actually walking through Flanders Field and we got quite a lot of discussion. They were able then to transfer that across to their writing, which was a story of a ANZAC soldier going off to war and because they had the understanding of what it looked like and what it sounded like, they were able to bring that emotion back into their writing.
Natasha O’Connor, Year 5 & 6 Teacher — West Melton School
We have unpacked the Common Practice Model and we can see how it fits with the revised curriculum. And one of the things we got from that Common Practice Model and one of the pedagogies, we really followed that explicit teaching of particular areas, of particular key skills, but also the opportunity for children to, I suppose, debate or talk to each other and decide on different viewpoints and what's important to them.
Special thanks to:
West Melton School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 7-8, Video 1:
Decision making and planning, and connections with whānau, hapū, and iwi
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Natalie Thompson, Team Leader Year 7 & 8 — Berkley Normal Middle School
My reaction to the document was that it felt more in line with how I have been teaching. That real inclusiveness of students, bringing in their ideas, bringing in their whānau's ideas and values, that real collaboration of learning within the classroom.
Mātaioho | School curriculum design and review
Notice how kaiako:
- Plan collaboratively
- Recognise and make use of the expertise within the school
- Make connections between the current curriculum and Te Mātaiaho to inform change
Candace Allan, Deputy Principal/SENCO — Berkley Normal Middle School
So as a school, in order to support our colleagues, we decided to create curriculum groups. This meant that we had experts in each curriculum area. When the curriculum came out, we were quite excited by the use of Te Tiriti and how we can implement that. We did a survey around a bilingual class and whether that was something that Berkley, the community wanted and our students and staff wanted. And then we decided, well, why would we have a bilingual class if we can have a bilingual school? And so we were fortunate to have a teacher who was fluent and so we've released him for the year and he works with every teacher once a week pretty much. One of our school philosophies was that every child has a place and especially every Māori student should have a place here. So we have done work around what that looks like. So how can we make the curriculum something that's meaningful for everyone? How can they feel engaged in that and feel like that's a part of who they are?
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako plan for teaching by:
- Using and mixing different modes
Candace Allan, Deputy Principal/SENCO — Berkley Normal Middle School
So we do a lot of work around relationships and recognising who our students are. The teachers work really hard at getting to know their students. We regularly meet and we look at workbooks, we look at what the student needs. At the end of every term we have student-led inquiries, so it's all around what they want to learn, what they need to learn, and we set goals and then we work with those students to get to where they need to get by the end of that time and what they want to achieve.
Natalie Thompson, Team Leader Year 7 & 8 — Berkley Normal Middle School
To gain a good understanding of the experience that our ākonga bring is first and foremost, it would come down to the relationships that we've formed with our students. When we know our students well, we know what they care about and then we understand that there's a whole 'nother world that they live at home and their values. Through our sustainability and scarcity unit we are using a variety of different texts. The complexity of the text, they are selected with purpose so that we are building that really in depth thinking and they lead to that really rich conversation from the students. We've selected 'dust' to allow that opportunity for students and their critical analysis of the text. They have spent time looking at what each picture represents, unpacking the meaning behind that picture, and what the artist is trying to portray. We have then looked at the sentence structure, then they're invited to then make their own sentence. What are we wanting to tell the audience through that sentence? Through that and that art and analysing how that works hand in hand.
Dennise Ulberg, Year 7-8 Teacher — Robertson Road School
I do have a high percentage of Pacifica learners in my classroom. I have to as an educator sort of find resources and sort of learning that will reflect my students. So what we're currently looking at is the Dawn Raids by Vaeluaga Smith. So that is one way I select texts. What reflects my ākonga and what will make it more meaningful for them. We're unpacking sort of the language features, the big ideas and all of that though guided reading. Even though we do have the Dawn Raids text. Also exploring out to sort of news articles that are relevant to the time period that this had happened. Also videos on YouTube, then making connections and building it
so we can see that okay, so this is actually an event that has happened and affects me.
Connecting to place and community
Notice how kaiako:
- Value ākonga knowledge and experiences to plan rich learning
Natalie Thompson, Team Leader Year 7 & 8 — Berkley Normal Middle School
We invite people into the classroom to share their own experiences. We've got people within the community that know the area really well. They come in and quite happily share what they know. And that way of feeding off each other and building those really rich conversations is fantastic.
Dennise Ulberg, Year 7-8 Teacher — Robertson Road School
The new curriculum, obviously it's asking us to come out of our comfort zones and reach out to the community. Bring up the knowledge from the community within. Recently, what I did for one of the inquiry assignments was to interview their parents about what they knew about the dawn raids. So they took a sheet home with a set of questions and they had to go and sit and record their grandparents or parents that were affected by the dawn raids. And obviously it gave the kids a teary eye because seeing their family in that position. So the next steps from now is that they take that momentum and mana that they have from this experience of dawn raids and going out and being advocates for different areas that need sort of attention and support from our community.
Special thanks to:
Berkley Normal Middle School
Robertson Road School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 7-8, Video 2:
Progress Outcomes and Understand, Know, Do
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Natalie Thompson, Team Leader Year 7 & 8 — Berkley Normal Middle School
I have a very strong belief that every single one of our students has something where they shine and I believe that this curriculum allows that to show through, that they can all be successful and they are successful. That's very personal for me.
Mātairea | Supporting progress
Notice how kaiako:
- Support progress through inclusive task design
- Think about the focus of the phase when planning
- Provide ākonga with multiple opportunities to progress
Natalie Thompson, Team Leader Year 7 & 8 — Berkley Normal Middle School
We know that our students are making progress and success because our big ideas that run through our English programme and our inquiry programme, we give time to those, we have opportunities to really go in depth with them. We can see the outcomes. We already have strong links to the formative assessment that's happening within our school. We do look forward to using the phases and unpacking that more even further to support us with that.
Candace Allan, Deputy Principal/SENCO — Berkley Normal Middle School
We've always had a philosophy around a child being a whole person and it not just being a tick box of progressions or achievement objectives. We've worked really hard as a school to upskill our teachers in what students need to know and then what they need to know to move forward. So we were really excited about the phases and how it talks about students as a whole and that every student is going to move at a different part and a different way through that curriculum.
Dennise Ulberg, Year 7-8 Teacher — Robertson Road School
I think with the new curriculum refresh, Te Mātaiaho, I feel like our kids will be able to see learning that sees themselves, which is something that has been lacking with the old curriculum. And I know that with this new curriculum coming through that our kids will just be able to thrive.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako:
- Link big ideas into specific contexts relevant to ākonga
- Plan to strengthen different aspects of the Progress Outcome over time
- Plan inclusively for all ākonga from the outset
Candace Allan, Deputy Principal/SENCO — Berkley Normal Middle School
The Understand, Know, Do section of the curriculum is something that we felt really strongly about here at Berkley. We've always had a strong belief in students acquiring knowledge from their teachers and teachers almost working alongside their students as coaches rather than teachers. They're not the pillars of all knowledge. But how can I coach my student into acquiring knowledge and then applying that in a way? So when we read the Understand, Know, Do and how that broke it down, we were like yay, this is something we do, making sure that when we learn something there's something that we can do and give back or make a difference in a way, especially in a local way. So we always thought about thinking globally but acting locally. And how can we make a difference to our community, our people, people around us and what do they need?
Natalie Thompson, Team Leader Year 7 & 8 — Berkley Normal Middle School
To build the framework around the UKD when we're using it within the English context, it seems explicit in terms of what's been asked, but then there's a lot of really good connections you can make across the curriculum. So a lot of our Māori concepts come through the texts that we select through English, such as we've just focused on one learning, from tangata whenua. We have unpacked how our Māori students see themselves as scientists, that it doesn’t need to be in a lab, that they don't have to wear white coats, that they can be down at the stream looking at water, that it's not restricted to the classroom. And the change in the students thinking around they have that in them already and that we just need to bring it out of them and experience it.
Dennise Ulberg, Year 7-8 Teacher — Robertson Road School
What we looked at within our Dawn Raids unit is that we were looking at the big ideas that build connections to the students. We were also looking at the language features. We're also looking at the response that students will receive from reading that whole paragraph. They are natural storytellers and our kids come with all this cultural knowledge. And now that this curriculum is asking them how to bring that out of them, to make our learning more meaningful and just to make this world a better place.
Special thanks to:
Berkley Normal Middle School
Robertson Road School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 9-10, Video 1:
Decision making and planning, and connections with whānau, hapū, and iwi
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Luke McFarlane, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
At Pāpāmoa College, we're really excited to have a look at the curriculum refresh. We're able to have a look at first of all the progress outcomes at the different year levels and then figure out where we sit in those and where our kids sit within those and then really breakdown the Understand, Know, Do's.
Mātaioho | School curriculum design and review
Notice how kaiako:
- Draw on the national curriculum to design their school curriculum
- Draw on local knowledge, contexts and expertise
Katarina Dale, Year 9 English Teacher — Berkley Normal Middle School
As a more experienced teacher, I'd seen other ways of looking at the curriculum, other versions, and this one seemed to really guide you into what was important and actually reflects our society because it's so much more focused on our local communities, our whānau, the fact that our learners bring in their own stories and their own histories, and it's quite inspiring. You can put down the checklist and really go wherever the students take you.
Luke McFarlane, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
It's absolutely driven towards developing an authentic Aotearoa context. We've got some wicked local stories to tell and this is certainly ensuring that those voices are heard and there's a greater understanding amongst our young people of what has gone on here traditionally and what our society should be built upon.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako plan for teaching by:
- Using and mixing different modes
Katarina Dale, Year 9 English Teacher — Berkley Normal Middle School
There are other worldviews, Te Ao Māori and all the other cultures that we have in our classrooms. They all bring differing views that can inform us and help us look at ourselves in the world and what our place is. We make sure that nationalities and cultures and identities are included in our texts, so the students can really build on that and add as well or go home and have discussions at home about these things, how they reflect towards other cultures.
Andrea Hotter, English Teacher — Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
We're always trying to look for what our students enjoy and what will engage them. And I took my year 10 class to the library in term one. A group of the boys in my class took some children's picture books off the shelf rhyming children's books and disappeared over to a corner of the library and kind of ran their own little poetry slam. So they were taking turns reading lines, emphasising the rhythm and the rhyme. So I thought we'd try and bring that back into the classroom. And we've done a unit this term on poetry and oratory.
Luke McFarlane, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
So we tried to ensure that through the curriculum refresh that Understand, Know, Do particular focus for us was looking at the two versions of the treaty and the languages used within. And so then from there, we've looked at the misunderstandings of language throughout time and also the way the country was colonised through the names of areas, the names of towns, the names of particular streets. And that's continued to look at local artists and their activism and sort of decolonizing the landscape to ensure that there is a real connection to this place that existed before we renamed it. And we need to honour that.
James Allen, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
Through the design of this unit. We purposely chose texts that were relevant to our ākonga, so we chose songs which they may have heard at home or in the car we're also focusing on a local artist, Mr G, who's done a lot around the community. So having that connection to place through a local artist is really important. And the kids automatically are engaged because they're like, I've seen that artwork.
Andrea Hotter, English Teacher — Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
The Local English Teachers Association, Waitaha English, has done a range of professional development for local English teachers. So it was through those connections that I came across the collections of biographies and was able to read those myself and think about how we might integrate some of that material into our programmes. And the students have then written their own little autobiographies about themselves and then they've written biographies about someone in their whānau or someone in their community, so that they're drawing from their own local knowledge. So that's been a starting point this year for me with our year 10 programme.
Special thanks to:
Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
Pāpāmoa College
Berkley Normal Middle School
Te Mātaiaho
English
Years 9-10, Video 2:
Progress Outcomes and Understand, Know, Do
These schools share their first thoughts as they look at their current planning using the refreshed English learning area curriculum content.
Use these videos as you build awareness and grow understanding of Te Mātaiaho, the refreshed NZ curriculum.
Andrea Hotter, English Teacher — Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
The process for developing the poetry and oratory unit came out of listening to what the students enjoyed and then beginning in that mātauranga Māori space and trying to draw in some texts. That started there so that we could then broaden out from that.
Mātairea | Supporting progress
Notice how kaiako:
- Support progress through inclusive task design
- Provide ākonga with multiple opportunities to progress
James Allen, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
At the start of each individual topic throughout the unit, we always start with a bit of Q and A. What do you know? Who's experienced this? Does this remind you of anything? So by sort of offering up these activities which students can display their prior knowledge, gives us an opportunity to build on and plan to where to next and ask those questions which the experts in the class can answer to help those who might need some extra support in student voice. We're lucky enough to have members on staff who whakapapa back to this area and their kōrero and their knowledge and their history gives it real mana and power for our students that they can't necessarily get just through the pages of a book.
Andrea Hotter, English Teacher — Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
As I'm teaching the poetry unit, we're just observing all the time where students are at with their learning. Some of them have really taken to poetry writing, but I am giving them the option of presenting something that is more of a classic speech. And I've also given them the option to present it in groups if they prefer to do that and if that gives them more confidence with the oral presentation element of their writing.
Katarina Dale, Year 9 English Teacher — Berkley Normal Middle School
It's important to look at the progressions that come before so that we understand what is being built on and why. Our formative assessment practices allow us to be looking at progress and monitoring that all the way through.
Luke McFarlane, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
One thing that we've tried to do with this new curriculum refresh is that rather than traditionally looking for the students to produce one piece of work at the end of an assessment, this has allowed us to sort of break that into small and manageable tasks and use that as a record of learning and assessment throughout. I think this allows us to open up every assessment in every unit and re-engage them through means that probably haven't been introduced beforehand. It's allowing us creativity, it's allowing us growth. It's almost a no holds barred, let's have a go opportunity for all of us.
Mātaiaho | Learning areas
Notice how kaiako:
- Plan to strengthen different aspects of the Progress Outcome over time
- Use the progress outcomes and the pedagogical approaches and practices of the Common Practice Model to design rich learning tasks
- Plan inclusively for all ākonga from the outset
Andrea Hotter, English Teacher — Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
I started the unit on poetry and oratory with a poem by Te Kahu Rolleston. So we unpacked the structure and the ideas in that poem as an entry point for our unit. I was also looking for a range of poetry that covered a range of styles and genders and was inclusive. So I wanted to make sure that there was something in there that connected with everybody in some way. When I looked at the new curriculum document and started in that Understand aspect of it, the unit that I was doing very much fitted under the Understand idea that stories are a source of joy and nourishment, which was what had inspired the unit in the first place, and that language and literature allow us to express things about ourselves. Then I looked at the Know and Do aspects and the language knowledge that I wanted my students to have fitted under the Know, and the work that I wanted to come out of the unit in terms of their own writing and articulating, their own ideas fitted under the Do components. But it was very much back and forth between the two. I was weaving between the two the whole time.
Katarina Dale, Year 9 English Teacher — Berkley Normal Middle School
We read through the progress outcomes and unpacked the wording of them while they're concise, there is a lot you can pull out of them. So we brainstormed, really looked at resources, looked at experts in the field, asked our students, what is it that you know already? And, you know, in that way you get a real range of learners at different levels. So we're learning from each other now. We chose the text "Dust" because it aligned really nicely with the Understand, Know and Do in terms of looking at texts that are potentially contentious or confrontational. So the text "Dust" gives us a real insight into ourselves and others. Using a range of devices, students were able to see the irony between the Western world throwing away their almost full plate into a rubbish bin that had a newspaper of a starving child in Africa holding an empty plate. There was so much depth within not just the text, but in the images that went with it, that they were able to understand that texts are powerful and convey very clear perspectives.
Losa, Year 9 student — Berkley Normal Middle School
If you're like a deeper meaning reader, you would actually search more because the words didn't match the cities. So I looked further and I saw the face in the sky. That person from the sky was looking at the city because they would have never been there, because they struggled in Niger, a part of Africa with no food, starving and stuff. And I thought that's probably the deeper meaning for the page.
Luke McFarlane, English Teacher — Pāpāmoa College
So as a department, we broke down the Understand, Know, Do and then targeted the specific ones. We reflected on the Common Practice Model and had a look at the critical pedagogies and the Cultural Sustaining Model. And we sort of looked at, well, what are we currently accomplishing within that? But it was more useful as a tool to sort of really identify what we were missing.
Special thanks to:
Hillmorton High School Te Kura Tuarua o Horomaka
Pāpāmoa College
Berkley Normal Middle School
Updates to learning area content
The draft refreshed English learning area was updated in May 2023 with minor changes:
- We improved consistency of how te Tiriti o Waitangi is expressed throughout Te Mātaiaho
- “Important considerations” is now “Planning for teaching”
- Te Mātaiaho is being redesigned in A4 size instead of A3.
The draft refreshed English learning area was updated in September 2023 with minor changes to correct spelling and layout errors. (Published 2 November 2023)