Musings on the new Curriculum

Yesterday Miranda, Rob and I attended a seminar entitled The New Zealand Curriculum held at Riccarton Racecourse. I left the day feeling genuinely excited about the future of education in New Zealand. It is refreshing to see a system that is willing to listen to the education community and to trust the professionals working in our schools. I have come from an educational system which demands that schools conform to a rigid and over-full curriculum that limits possibilities for teachers and children. In contrast, the new draft curriculum in Aotearoa is flexible, manageable and child focussed.

The greatest triumph of the new curriculum is that it allows schools to create their own curriculum, for the children in that school. Fendalton has a well established and creative curriculum in place and the advent of new national guidance is not a time for us to throw out what we already do or try to reinvent the wheel, rather it is an opportunity for us to reflect and renew. We need to reiterate our beliefs and fundamental values and make sure that how and what we teach is inline with those values. It is vital that we make our values explicit so that we have a shared understanding of our vision for Fendalton school.

Therefore, I would like to share my own educational values and I invite the community of parents, staff and children to add their own comments to this.

I believe that learning should be fun and challenging for all children. We should seek out the gifts and talents in all our children and look for ways to extend them. We should celebrate diversity and offer opportunities to everyone so that we create a sense of wonder in our children.

I believe that we should question everything that we do and ask whether it will make a difference. Learning should be relevant and purposeful as we seek to prepare our children for the unknown future. Learning and progress is a personal journey and children will grow, develop and progress at different rates. Our job, as educators, is to make sure that the challenge and expectations we set push children to stretch their own limits. We have to create an environment that allows children to take risks and explore new worlds in a safe and supported way.

All this is only possible with excellent relationships that engender trust, co-operation and collaboration.

Everyone has an opinion about education. Please add your opinion by clicking on the comments link below.

Happy Campers

Our youngest learners had their very own camp today! Whilst our year 5 and 6's have been preparing or recovering from their camp experience in Wainui the four year 0/1 classes had fun in the sun today as they established a camping ground on the field at Fendalton School. The children had a sausage sizzle, played parachute games, relays and had special reading time in their tents. It was fabulous to see learning happening outside the classroom and it was a day that the children will remember for years to come. Special thanks to all the teachers and parents who organised the day and made it so much fun for the children.