Contact: Ann Gover, principal
Website: http://www.tapanui.school.nz
As a staff we had two days with Lester Flockton at the end of 2007. We used the two days to focus on long term planning and the implementation of the new curriculum. Specifically, we spent time on the different learning areas.
The two days were valuable, as we became familiar with, and found our way around the new document. We discussed different aspects of the curriculum and looked at the changes that we would need to make to our teaching and learning programmes and to our planning.
The next stage was to look at and develop new documentation. We looked at where the school is currently, and at our recent past, and we explored what we wanted to hold onto and what changes we needed to make. Then as part of the consultation process with our community, we looked at our school vision and worked through our values.
We then decided to concentrate, over the two years of the implementation period, on developing an understanding of each learning area, and then planning and implementing one learning area a term. We would follow this up with a report to the Board each term about the learning area we had been working on as a staff.
We made the decision to start with English as this learning area was our term one report to the BOT. Part of our time with Lester Flockton was spent exploring the different learning areas, starting with English. Building on the work we had developed on this course, we revised our current one page curriculum plans and then started looking specifically at how we would implement the English learning area.
We looked at the change in direction with the way the English area is structured. Where in the past it was split with oral, written and visual forms of language, which you reported on separately, we now teach and report with an understanding of the way the strands are interconnected. We examined the implications for our teaching and learning programmes and our reporting format, and we started to construct new documentation to reflect these changes.
Developing our plans is part of the work we do as a staff. We spend time reading and discussing the curriculum document. In the English learning area, this has meant looking at the strands, the achievement objectives, and the processes and strategies, and working through each aspect of the English curriculum, so that we have an in depth understanding of English in the new curriculum, which will be reflected in our planning and our classroom teaching.
At this stage we also needed to revise the English goals drawn up by our school community six years ago. During further discussions as a staff we made sure our reporting format to the Board was a teaching tool. We wanted to encourage discussion and understanding about the new curriculum between the community and staff.
We have now drafted a new set of goals for the English learning area and sent them out to our parents for consultation and comment and will be working through these next term. As a staff we have been able to focus on our curriculum development as our PD days organised from banking staffing have been specifically for this purpose. It has been an important part of the success of the way we have approached developing the new curriculum at Tapanui School.
By giving staff time to become involved with curriculum development and by using banking staffing to give us this time, we have been able to focus on the new curriculum and supporting readings as well as carry out development plans. The new curriculum has become integral to the Tapanui School life.
Published on: 14 Oct 2008
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