Local Curriculum, Local Histories & Community Partners

Last year, this survey was put forward to all school local curriculum leaders. Within the survey, we asked leaders what their schools most needed support with in order to improve the teaching of local curriculum in their schools. The two highest needs for support were around:

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1. Understanding Mātauranga Māori and;

2. Building Community Partnerships
    

A large number of teachers also indicated their desire for Te Iti Kahurangi to focus on helping teachers to integrate the local curriculum more smoothly into other curriculum areas. 

The work we had done in 2021 in relation to understanding the progression of the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories (ANZH) document, specifically the ‘Understand’, ‘Know’ and 'Do' sections, provided a solid foundation for local curriculum group members to work collaboratively in and across year groups. Within these groups, teachers and leaders discussed, planned and shared content that connected with a variety of curriculum areas. 

Student Inquiry provides a framework for learning the ANZH, and helps to integrate the ANZH across the curriculum. Teachers have shared what this looks like in their classrooms which prompted collaboration between local curriculum group attendees. We referred to the Tainui Waka migration story and used this to examine links to the ANZH document and the activities that students could participate in. Clear links were made to multiple curriculum areas.

We invited several of our community partners along to our Local Curriculum Hui to share their mahi. Guests included the Auckland Council Sustainable Schools Team, Onehunga Community Recycling Centre, the AUT field site at Pourewa (Ngāti Whātua, Ōrākei) and the Onehunga People’s Garden. As we listened to their presentations, the opportunities for authentic curriculum integration were obvious and relevant. For teachers and leaders, this helped to consolidate their understanding of ANZH and it has provided a means by which students can participate in this local curriculum development. Community projects include opportunities to teach and for students to explore maths, art, science, literacy and digital learning being just a few of the possibilities!

Community Partners

Future mahi for the local curriculum team will be guided by the goals and targets outlined in the recently refreshed Achievement Challenge. These include ensuring there is a shared understanding amongst teachers about Te Iti Kahurangi Kāhui Ako’s local curriculum, strengthening knowledge and pedagogical approaches of the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum (integration) and incorporating Mātauranga Māori.

In the sustainability strand, the goals here are to further develop local environmental/sustainability projects especially those that foster collaboration between students in different schools (including digitally) and to integrate these local projects with the mahi of the local curriculum development. 

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All staff are welcome to attend Local Curriculum Hui, check out the calendar for dates and locations.