How National Standards support the curriculum

The standards will help schools better understand their students’ learning needs through providing clear learning goals and information about students’ progress and achievement. This will help schools and teachers make more informed decisions about how the school curriculum is planned, used and reviewed.

Reading, writing and maths skills help children do well

Doing well in reading, writing and maths gives children the skills and knowledge they need to do well in all curriculum areas at school. The eight learning areas are: the arts, English, health and physical education, learning languages, mathematics and statistics, science, social sciences, and technology. The curriculum also helps children develop capabilities for living and for life-long learning.

Reading, writing and maths will not be taught in isolation from the rest of the curriculum. Your child’s teacher will teach them using all the curriculum learning areas. For example, the teacher could use a social sciences project on a famous New Zealander to strengthen your child’s reading and writing skills.

Following their progress

Using the National Standards, the teacher will track your child’s progress and achievement in reading, writing and maths throughout the school year, and across the curriculum. For example, your child’s written summary of an arts project could form part of the teacher’s assessment of their writing skills in relation to National Standards.

Teachers will use the information they gain to plan the next steps in your child’s learning. You can talk to your child’s teacher about this.

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Reporting on National Standards and the curriculum

Schools are required to report in writing in plain language to students and their parents, families and whānau on student progress and achievement:

• in relation to the whole curriculum
• in relation to National Standards, in reading, writing and mathematics, at least twice a year.

Schools will choose whether they report these together or separately.

Tips: Talking to teachers about National Standards and the curriculum

• Ask how your child is doing in relation to National Standards (in reading writing and maths), and in all learning areas.
• Talk about ways to connect your child’s home life to what they learn at school, for example, if they are learning about mountains – you could offer to come and talk to the class about the mountains near where you grew up and why they are important to you.
• Ask how you can help at home to support what they learn at school, especially in areas where they may not be doing as well as they could be.
• If possible, go along to school information meetings for parents, family and whānau, particularly on curriculum planning and National Standards.

New revised curriculum

From 2010, all state schools will be using revised curriculums. Where teaching is in English they will be using The New Zealand Curriculum to develop their school curriculum. Māori-medium schools will use Te Marautanga o Aotearoa from February 2011.