"Be the best you can be ..."
CURRICULUM
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.
Since all students at Awakeri have to participate in activities like science fair they all have the expectation that they will achieve.
Awakeri students achieve well across the many curriculum areas e.g. our maths results are well above the national average.
Awakeri is labelled as a high achieving school.
Awakeri School has entered teams into the Kids Literacy competition over the last 7 years and have been regional champions four times, national champions twice and world champions once.
Vision
· An inclusive and supportive learning environment where all children have the opportunity to be the best they can be.
· Learning and behaviour are integrated with our core values: (Excellence, Resilience, Confidence, Kindness, Respect, Independence)
· The importance of lifelong learning is reflected and developed.
· All become active and innovative learners and thinkers, with the ability to solve problems creatively.
· The school develops its facilities considering the needs of its community of learners.
Values
The Awakeri School Core Values were developed through a robust consultation process and reflect the beliefs of our students, staff and parents/whanau. Everyone at Awakeri School (staff, students and parents) is expected to act in accordance to the school’s ‘5 Core Values’. All expectations for behaviour fall under the umbrella of the Awakeri School Values.
The Awakeri School Core Values are:
Always safe
Working together
Attitude is positive
Kind and thoughtful
Expect the best
Resilient when things are tough
Independent and confident to be me
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