04/06/19
Are you looking for ways to explore and develop your local curriculum? One way to get started is to identify the rich learning opportunities that exist in your own community. This blog offers some ideas, stories, and questions to help your students “learn locally”.
The New Zealand Curriculum is a clear statement of what we deem important in education. It presents a vision of our young people as confident, creative, connected, and actively involved lifelong learners and includes a clear set of principles on which to base local curriculum decision making.
Your local curriculum is the way that you bring The New Zealand Curriculum to life at your school. Designing your local curriculum involves making decisions about how to give effect to the national curriculum in ways that best address the particular needs, interests, and circumstances of your students and community.
One way to localise your curriculum is to consider your wider community as your classroom and connect your students to the local learning opportunities that are available. Learning locally is a strategy available at every school. Opportunities vary depending on a school's location but there are rich opportunities waiting outside every classroom door.
There are numerous benefits to learning locally, some of which are described below:
Schools across Aotearoa are harnessing people, places, and resources in their communities to provide rich learning opportunities for their students. This blog brings together a collection of school stories that provide practical examples of local learning. Reflective questions are provided to help you consider ways to connect your own students to their community.
Menzies College – Localised learning at Mimihau Stream
Year 12 students from Menzies College have been catching and tagging trout in Mimihau Stream and sharing their findings with Fish and Game New Zealand. By gaining a more accurate picture of life in this waterway, students have challenged the assertion that Mimihau Stream is dead. This hands-on, localised project has encouraged students to solve problems, develop resilience, and practice teamwork, and has led to a much greater engagement in learning.
Conservation kids protecting endangered species in Nina Valley
Eighteen kiwi have been repatriated into their habitat in the Nina Valley in the Canterbury region through the efforts of Hurunui College students, who contribute to their school’s conservation work inside the classroom and through volunteering.
Oakura School – Homes for penguins
Oakura community and the Department of Conservation (DOC) had a project to do and needed some assistance. As a result of construction along the coastline of the community the little blue penguins were losing their homes. DOC approached Oakura School to see if the students would be interested in constructing and placing boxes to encourage the little blue penguins to return to the area and nest.
Local histories – a student’s perspective
Arapeta Latus, a senior student at Whanganui City College, talks about the importance of hearing local history from local people, and visiting the sites of significance. Arapeta suggests that teachers build a relationship with local marae to ask kaumātua and kuia to help in setting up the process for hearing these important stories from the past.
Different perspectives emerge as students research first encounters
Students at Whitney Street Primary School in Marlborough are hearing a different side of their local history that includes first encounters between migrants and Māori and how it was experienced by local iwi.
Wairakei School – Working in partnership with Ngāti Tūwharetoa
Schools in the Taupō area, including Wairakei School, have worked in partnership with Ngāti Tūwharetoa to ensure students learn about their iwi, its history, places, and stories.
Have you seen ...
Connecting with Māori Communities: Whānau, Hapū, and Iwi
This resource outlines key messages from research and literature that relate to schools connecting with their Māori communities, including whānau, hapū, and iwi.
Partnership sparks career pathways in Hawke’s Bay
A partnership between a Hastings high school and a local engineering business is giving students valuable career opportunities – while also returning significant benefits for the school and helping to resolve a nationwide skills shortage.
Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi
With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive
This closing whakataukī speaks of community and collaboration. It acknowledges that everybody has something to offer and by working together we can all flourish. When schools and their communities combine their skills, resources, and knowledge, there is greater potential to accelerate the learning of all of our ākonga.
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Leading local curriculum guide series
In order to support the progress of all students, the Leading Local Curriculum Guide series has been developed to deliberately steer your curriculum and assessment review and design decisions as you strengthen your local curriculum. It will support you to use tools to assess progress that is informative, and strengthen the partnerships you have with parents and whānau.
