Strengthening local curriculum

This resource supports your school with the local curriculum design and review process. The resource is for tumuaki, principals, curriculum leaders, and professional learning and development providers.

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About this resource

The Leading Local Curriculum Guide series will help steer your review of curriculum, assessment, and design as you strengthen your local curriculum, respond to progress, and reinforce learning partnerships with parents and whānau. See the resource carousel for more.

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Strengthening local curriculum

An introduction to local curriculum

This video introduces the local curriculum and gives you some simple tips to get started.

As you plan your local curriculum, you have an obligation to learning through relationships with mana whenua and local communities.

The relationship between The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and local curriculum

This diagram illustrates how local curriculum weaves the elements of the national curriculum framework within contexts that provide rich learning opportunities, to provide a coherent pathway that supports teachers to be responsive to all learners for the classroom curriculum.

NZC Schematic

A diagram depicts how the foundational elements of the New Zealand curriculum and the local curriculum (vision, values, principles, pedagogy, key competencies, and learning areas) are woven through them and all feed into the content that is taught in the classroom curriculum.

This concept is illustrated with two headings (appearing vertically and side by side): The New Zealand Curriculum is depicted by a light blue ribbon and the Local Curriculum with a green ribbon. These run vertically the full length of the diagram.

These two types of curricula are underpinned by the foundational elements (vision, values, principles, pedagogy, key competencies, and learning areas) shared by both curricula. These headings appear in orange boxes that are overlayed on top of the light blue and green ribbons depicting the New Zealand Curriculum and the Local Curriculum. The final box at the bottom of the diagram (in dark blue) contains the words "Classroom Curriculum".

Diagram text from top to bottom:

The New Zealand Curriculum and the Local Curriculum sit vertically side by side.

Underneath these two headings, the following text appears next to each of the headings to the right:

Contribute to achieve our – Vision
… which requires curriculum decisions and practice to reflect shared – Values
… and be underpinned by – Principles
… and curriculum decisions and practice that draw on – Effective Pedagogy (Including Assessment)
… to ensure equity and excellence for students as they develop and use – Key Competencies
… and develop and use learning associated with the broad range of – Learning Areas

Classroom Curriculum: Teaching as inquiry ensures teaching is responsive to all learners’ progress and supports them to transfer learning to new contexts.

The local curriculum guides

These guides are for curriculum leaders to use for planning and school review. You can lead discussions with all staff or within curriculum or year level groups – whichever works for your school. We suggest you read the guides and then decide which areas you’d like to focus on. You can complete the sections within each guide at your own pace.

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Local curriculum (.pdf)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Assessment for learning (.pdf)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Information sharing and building partnerships (.pdf)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Aotearoa New Zealand's histories Part 1 of 2 (.pdf)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Aotearoa New Zealand's histories Part 2 of 2 (.pdf)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Revised technology learning area (.pdf)
Leading Local Curriculum Guide – Strategic planning guide (.pdf).