NZ has a national curriculum that guides what your child learns at school. Your child will develop a range of values and key competencies, or capabilities, that they need to succeed in life. These are all woven into the teaching of learning areas, or subjects.

The National Curriculum is the term used to refer to The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. These set the direction for student learning and guide schools and kura as they design and implement a curriculum that meets the needs of their students.

There is a big focus on reading, writing and maths in the primary years, as these are really important foundation skills that everyone needs in order to be able to do well in life. Children need strong reading, writing and maths skills to progress through the levels of the National Curriculum and be able to achieve NCEA Level 2 or above at secondary school.

Click here to see Information for parents about the National Curriculum

Learning Areas

There are 8 learning areas (or subject areas) in The New Zealand Curriculum:

• english

• the arts

• health and physical education

• learning languages

• mathematics and statistics

• science

• social sciences

• technology

The values and competencies in the New Zealand Curriculum are woven into these learning areas. They are designed to encourage enjoyment of learning and the ability to think critically, manage oneself, set goals, overcome obstacles and get along with others – the attributes students need to succeed as adults.

Key Competencies

Competencies are abilities and capabilities that people use to live, learn, work and contribute as active members of their communities.

The New Zealand Curriculum identifies 5 key competencies that it has a focus on children developing throughout their time at school:

• Thinking - is about using thinking processes to make sense of information, experiences and ideas

• Using language, symbols, and texts - working with, being able to understand, and making sense of the codes (languages and symbols) in which knowledge is expressed

• Managing self - having self-motivation, a "can-do" attitude, and seeing oneself as a capable learner

• Relating to others - is about interacting effectively with a range of different people in a range of different situations, including things like being able to listen well, recognise different points of view, and share ideas

• Participating and contributing - being involved in communities, such as family, whānau, school, and be able to contribute and make connections with other people

The New Zealand Curriculum refresh is underway, signaling a major next step in the development of our national curriculum. In this article, they explore some of the changes, including Understand, Know and Do – the new framing in Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum content.

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