New Zealand

The New Zealand Curriculum in Primary and Lower Secondary Schools

The national curriculum guides teaching and learning in New Zealand. It comprises two documents: The New Zealand Curriculum for English-medium education and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa for Māori-medium education. The English-medium document was introduced in late 2007, and fully implemented at the beginning of 2010. The Māori-medium document was introduced a year later, with full implementation at the beginning of 2011. The two documents were developed independently of each other and are not translations of each other. However, they share the same goal: an emphasis on foundation learning and academic success for all students and the competencies needed for study, work, and lifelong learning.^11,12 Although the aims and objectives are not designed to be parallel, the two documents have many similarities in stated learning goals and learning progressions.

Each school has autonomy over how the curriculum is implemented. The curriculum documents do not prescribe detailed plans for teaching and learning, but offer a framework for schools to develop their own curriculum plans and teaching practices. It is the role of each school’s board of trustees, principal, and teachers to develop and implement locally appropriate programs that are consistent with the principles, values, key competencies, and the various learning statements set out in the curriculum. Teachers are expected to tailor lessons to meet students’ individual needs. Thus, students in the same year level may be working at different curriculum levels as appropriate to their abilities and pace of progression.^g

Structurally, both documents have two sections. The first section identifies key learning outcomes and outlines the vision, principles, values, key competencies, and learning areas. It also guides effective pedagogy, assessment, and curriculum design and review. The second section of the document sets out the “achievement objectives” by level for each of eight learning areas, two of which are Mathematics and Statistics, and Science. The Māori-medium document covers nine learning areas, two of which are Mathematics (which includes statistics) and Science.¹³ The learning areas differ only with respect to language: the English-medium document has two language learning areas, while the Māori-medium document has three.^h

Within each learning area, for both documents, there are eight curriculum levels that span 13 years of schooling. The alignment of curriculum levels with year levels is flexible with each curriculum level in primary schooling, equating to approximately two or three years of schooling. For example, students are not expected to complete Level 3 until the end of Year 6 (ages 10 to 11). Across secondary schooling, curriculum levels are approximately equivalent to one year of schooling.

In addition to the national curriculum, National Standards in English-medium settings and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori in Māori-medium settings apply to students in Years 1 to 8. These standards detail expectations of skills and knowledge to be demonstrated by the end of each school year in reading/pānui, writing/tuhituhi, and mathematics/pāngarau.ⁱ This marks an important point of difference to the eight curriculum levels set by The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, which do not prescribe annual benchmarks for students in primary education.

The intention behind introducing the standards was to promote quality teaching and learning. They are designed to assist teachers and schools with deciding next learning steps with students, targeting students who need extra assistance, and reporting to students, their families, agencies, and the community.¹⁴ National Standards were first implemented in 2010 for English-medium education¹⁵ and in 2011 for Māori-medium education.¹⁶ These dates coincide with the dates of full implementation of the respective curriculum documents.

The standards for mathematics and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori Pāngarau are structured according to the strands of the Mathematics and Statistics learning area of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, respectively. The curriculum drives teaching, and the standards support teachers to assess their students’ achievement in relation to the curriculum. Both the mathematics standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori Pāngarau are determined using overall teacher judgments, which combine information from a variety of sources, using a range of approaches to establish whether a student is well below, below, at, or above the standard set for each Year Level.¹⁷ The first full release of the mathematics standards results and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori Pāngarau was in 2012.^j