The New Zealand Curriculum - The arts
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning, and assessment of the arts in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
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About this resource
The arts is one of the learning areas in the New Zealand Curriculum, the official document that sets the direction for teaching, learning, and assessment in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand. In the arts, students explore, refine, and communicate ideas as they connect thinking, imagination, senses, and feelings to create works and respond to the works of others.
The New Zealand Curriculum - The arts
What are the arts about?
Te toi whakairo, ka ihiihi, ka wehiwehi,
ka aweawe te ao katoa.
Artistic excellence makes the world sit up in wonder.
The arts are powerful forms of expression that recognise, value, and contribute to the unique bicultural and multicultural character of Aotearoa New Zealand, enriching the lives of all New Zealanders. The arts have their own distinct languages that use both verbal and non-verbal conventions, mediated by selected processes and technologies. Through movement, sound, and image, the arts transform people’s creative ideas into expressive works that communicate layered meanings.
- Why study the arts?
- Learning area structure
- Achievement objectives
- Teaching time requirements
Arts education explores, challenges, affirms, and celebrates unique artistic expressions of self, community, and culture. It embraces toi Māori, valuing the forms and practices of customary and contemporary Māori performing, musical, and visual arts.
Learning in, through, and about the arts stimulates creative action and response by engaging and connecting thinking, imagination, senses, and feelings. By participating in the arts, students’ personal well-being is enhanced. As students express and interpret ideas within creative, aesthetic, and technological frameworks, their confidence to take risks is increased. Specialist studies enable students to contribute their vision, abilities, and energies to arts initiatives and creative industries.
In the arts, students learn to work both independently and collaboratively to construct meanings, produce works, and respond to and value others’ contributions. They learn to use imagination to engage with unexpected outcomes and to explore multiple solutions.
Arts education values young children’s experiences and builds on these with increasing sophistication and complexity as their knowledge and skills develop. Through the use of creative and intuitive thought and action, learners in the arts are able to view their world from new perspectives. Through the development of arts literacies, students, as creators, presenters, viewers, and listeners, are able to participate in, interpret, value, and enjoy the arts throughout their lives.
The arts learning area comprises four disciplines: dance, drama, music – sound arts, and visual arts. Within each, students develop literacies as they build on skills, knowledge, attitudes, and understandings at each of the eight levels of the curriculum. Through arts practices and the use of traditional and new technologies, students’ artistic ideas are generated and refined through cycles of action and reflection.
Each discipline is structured around four interrelated strands: "understanding the arts in context", "developing practical knowledge" in the arts, "developing ideas" in the arts, and "communicating and interpreting" in the arts. The achievement objectives for each discipline reflect its distinct body of knowledge and practices. By building on and revisiting learning from previous levels, arts programmes in each discipline provide progressions of learning opportunities in all four strands. This spiral process ensures that students’ learning is relevant, in-depth, and meaningful.
Over the course of years 1–8, students will learn in all four disciplines. Over the course of years 9–10, they will learn in at least two. Students in years 11–13 may specialise in one or more of the disciplines or undertake study in multimedia and other new technologies.
Dance
Dance is expressive movement that has intent, purpose, and form. In dance education, students integrate thinking, moving, and feeling. They explore and use dance elements, vocabularies, processes, and technologies to express personal, group, and cultural identities, to convey and interpret artistic ideas, and to strengthen social interaction. Students develop literacy in dance as they learn about, and develop skills in, performing, choreographing, and responding to a variety of genres from a range of historical and contemporary contexts.
Drama
Drama expresses human experience through a focus on role, action, and tension, played out in time and space. In drama education, students learn to structure these elements and to use dramatic conventions, techniques, and technologies to create imagined worlds. Through purposeful play, both individual and collaborative, they discover how to link imagination, thoughts, and feelings.
As students work with drama techniques, they learn to use spoken and written language with increasing control and confidence and to communicate effectively using body language, movement, and space. As they perform, analyse, and respond to different forms of drama and theatre, they gain a deeper appreciation of their rich cultural heritage and language and new power to examine attitudes, behaviours, and values.
By means of the drama that they create and perform, students reflect and enrich the cultural life of their schools, whānau, and communities.
Music – Sound arts
Sound from natural, acoustic, and digital environments is the source material for expressive ideas in music. These ideas are manipulated and extended into forms, genres, and styles that are recognised as music. Music is a fundamental form of expression, both personal and cultural. Value is placed upon the musical heritages of New Zealand’s diverse cultures, including traditional and contemporary Māori musical arts. By making, sharing, and responding to music, students contribute to the cultural life of their schools, whānau, peer groups, and communities. As they engage with and develop knowledge and deeper understandings of music, they draw on cultural practices and on histories, theories, structures, technologies, and personal experiences.
In music education, students work individually and collaboratively to explore the potential of sounds and technologies for creating, interpreting, and representing music ideas. As they think about and explore innovative sound and media, students have rich opportunities to further their own creative potential.
Students develop literacies in music as they listen and respond, sing, play instruments, create and improvise, read symbols and notations, record sound and music works, and analyse and appreciate music. This enables them to develop aural and theoretical skills and to value and understand the expressive qualities of music.
As students learn to communicate musically with increasing sophistication, they lay a foundation for lifelong enjoyment of and participation in music. Some will go on to take courses in musicology, performance, or composition. These may be steps on the way to music-related employment.
Visual arts
Through engaging in the visual arts, students learn how to discern, participate in, and celebrate their own and others’ visual worlds. Visual arts learning begins with children’s curiosity and delight in their senses and stories and extends to communication of complex ideas and concepts. An understanding of Māori visual culture is achieved through exploration of Māori contexts. The arts of European, Pasifika, Asian, and other cultures add significant dimensions to New Zealand visual culture.
In visual arts education, students develop visual literacy and aesthetic awareness as they manipulate and transform visual, tactile, and spatial ideas to solve problems. They explore experiences, stories, abstract concepts, social issues, and needs, both individually and collaboratively. They experiment with materials, using processes and conventions to develop their visual enquiries and create both static and time-based art works. They view art works, bringing their own experiences, sharing their responses, and generating multiple interpretations. Their meaning making is further informed by investigation of the contexts in which art works are created, used, and valued. As they develop their visual literacy, students are able to engage with a wider range of art experiences in increasingly complex and conscious ways.
The visual arts develop students’ conceptual thinking within a range of practices across drawing, sculpture, design, painting, printmaking, photography, and moving image. Art history may include a study of theories of the arts, architecture, and design. Theoretical investigations also inform practical enquiry. Opportunities to explore and communicate in the visual arts continue to expand as technologies and multi-disciplinary practices evolve.
Level 1
Understanding dance in context
Students will demonstrate an awareness of dance in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore movement with a developing awareness of the dance elements of body, space, time, energy, and relationships.
Developing ideas
Students will improvise and explore movement ideas in response to a variety of stimuli.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will share dance movement through informal presentation and share their thoughts and feelings in response to their own and others’ dances.
Understanding drama in context
Students will demonstrate an awareness that drama serves a variety of purposes in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore the elements of role, focus, action, tension, time, and space through dramatic play.
Developing ideas
Students will contribute and develop ideas in drama, using personal experience and imagination.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will share drama through informal presentation and respond to ways in which drama tells stories and conveys ideas in their own and others’ work.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will explore and share ideas about music from a range of sound environments and recognise that music serves a variety of purposes and functions in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore how sound is made as they listen and respond to the elements of music: beat, rhythm, pitch, tempo, dynamics, and tone colour.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- explore and express sounds and musical ideas, drawing on personal experience, listening, and imagination
- explore ways to represent sound and musical ideas.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- share music-making with others
- respond to live and recorded music.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will share ideas about how and why their own and others’ works are made and their purpose, value, and context.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore a variety of materials and tools and discover elements and selected principles.
Developing ideas
Students will investigate visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations, observation, and imagination.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will share the ideas, feelings, and stories communicated by their own and others’ objects and images.
Level 2
Understanding dance in context
Students will identify and describe dance in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore and identify, through movement, the dance elements of body, space, time, energy, and relationships.
Developing ideas
Students will use the elements of dance in purposeful ways to respond to a variety of stimuli.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will share dance movement through informal presentation and identify the use of the elements of dance.
Understanding drama in context
Students will identify and describe how drama serves a variety of purposes in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore and use elements of drama for different purposes.
Developing ideas
Students will develop and sustain ideas in drama, based on personal experience and imagination.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will share drama through informal presentation and respond to elements of drama in their own and others’ work.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will explore and share ideas about music from a range of sound environments and recognise that music serves a variety of purposes and functions in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore and identify how sound is made and changed as they listen and respond to the elements of music and structural devices.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- improvise, explore, and express musical ideas, drawing on personal experience, listening, and imagination
- explore ways to represent sound and musical ideas.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- share music-making with others, using basic performance skills and techniques
- respond to live and recorded music.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will share ideas about how and why their own and others’ works are made and their purpose, value, and context.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore a variety of materials and tools and discover elements and selected principles.
Developing ideas
Students will investigate and develop visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations, observation, and imagination.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will share the ideas, feelings, and stories communicated by their own and others’ objects and images.
Level 3
Understanding dance in context
Students will explore and describe dances from a variety of cultures.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will use the dance elements to develop and share their personal movement vocabulary.
Developing ideas
Students will select and combine dance elements in response to a variety of stimuli.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare and share dance movement individually and in pairs or groups
- use the elements of dance to describe dance movements and respond to dances from a variety of cultures.
Understanding drama in context
Students will investigate the functions and purposes of drama in cultural and historical contexts.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will use techniques and relevant technologies to explore drama elements and conventions.
Developing ideas
Students will initiate and develop ideas with others to create drama.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will present and respond to drama, identifying ways in which elements, techniques, conventions, and technologies combine to create meaning in their own and others’ work.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will:
- identify and describe the characteristics of music associated with a range of sound environments in relation to historical, social, and cultural contexts
- explore ideas about how music serves a variety of purposes and functions in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore and identify how sound is made and changed, as they listen and respond to music and apply knowledge of the elements of music, structural devices, and technologies.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- express and shape musical ideas, using musical elements, instruments, and technologies in response to sources of motivation
- represent sound and musical ideas in a variety of ways.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare and present brief performances of music, using performance skills and techniques
- respond to and reflect on live and recorded music.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will investigate the purpose of objects and images from past and present cultures and identify the contexts in which they were or are made, viewed, and valued.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore some art-making conventions, applying knowledge of elements and selected principles through the use of materials and processes.
Developing ideas
Students will develop and revisit visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations, observation, and imagination, supported by the study of artists’ works.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will describe the ideas their own and others’ objects and images communicate.
Level 4
Understanding dance in context
Students will explore and describe how dance is used for different purposes in a variety of cultures and contexts.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply the dance elements to extend personal movement skills and vocabularies and to explore the vocabularies of others.
Developing ideas
Students will combine and contrast the dance elements to express images, ideas, and feelings in dance, using a variety of choreographic processes.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare and present dance with an awareness of the performance context
- describe and record how the purpose of selected dances is expressed through the movement.
Understanding drama in context
Students will investigate the functions, purposes, and technologies of drama in cultural and historical contexts.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will:
- select and use techniques and relevant technologies to develop drama practice
- use conventions to structure drama.
Developing ideas
Students will initiate and refine ideas with others to plan and develop drama.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will present and respond to drama, identifying ways in which elements, techniques, conventions, and technologies create meaning in their own and others’ work.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will:
- identify and describe the characteristics of music associated with a range of sound environments in relation to historical, social, and cultural contexts
- explore ideas about how music serves a variety of purposes and functions in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply knowledge of the elements of music, structural devices, and technologies through integrating aural, practical, and theoretical skills.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- express, develop, and refine musical ideas using the elements of music, instruments, and technologies in response to sources of motivation
- represent sound and musical ideas in a variety of ways.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare, rehearse, and present performance of music using performance skills and techniques
- reflect on the expressive qualities of their own and others’ music, both live and recorded.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will investigate the purpose of objects and images from past and present cultures and identify the contexts in which they were or are made, viewed, and valued.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will explore and use art-making conventions, applying knowledge of elements and selected principles through the use of materials and processes.
Developing ideas
Students will develop and revisit visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations, observation, and imagination, supported by the study of artists’ works.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will explore and describe ways in which meanings can be communicated and interpreted in their own and others’ work.
Level 5
Understanding dance in context
Students will compare and contrast dances from a variety of past and present cultures and contexts.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will develop a variety of skills, dance techniques, vocabularies, and movement practices.
Developing ideas
Students will manipulate the elements and explore the use of choreographic devices and structures to organise dance movement.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare, rehearse, and perform dance with an awareness of production technologies
- reflect on and describe how choreography communicates ideas, feelings, moods, and experiences.
Understanding drama in context
Students will investigate the characteristics, purposes, and function of drama in a range of contexts.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will select and use techniques, conventions, and relevant technologies for specific drama purposes.
Developing ideas
Students will select and refine ideas to develop drama for specific purposes.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will present and respond to drama and describe how drama combines elements, techniques, conventions, and technologies to create structure and meaning in their own and others’ work.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will:
- compare and contrast the characteristics of music associated with a range of sound environments, in relation to historical, social, and cultural contexts
- investigate how music serves a variety of purposes and functions in their lives and in their communities.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply knowledge of the elements of music, structural devices, stylistic conventions, and technologies through integrating aural, practical, and theoretical skills.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- use musical elements, instruments, technologies, and conventions to express, develop, and refine structured compositions and improvisations
- represent compositions and improvisation frameworks, using appropriate conventions.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare, rehearse, and present performances of music, using a range of performance skills and techniques
- reflect on the expressive qualities of their own and others’ music, both live and recorded.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will investigate and consider the relationship between the production of art works and their contexts and influences.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply knowledge of selected conventions from established practice using appropriate processes and procedures.
Developing ideas
Students will generate, develop, and refine ideas in response to a variety of motivations, including the study of established practice.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will compare and contrast the ways in which ideas and art-making processes are used to communicate meaning in selected objects and images.
Level 6
Understanding dance in context
Students will explore, investigate, and describe the features and backgrounds of a variety of dance genres and styles.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will develop and demonstrate skills in selected dance genres and styles and explore the use of a variety of technologies.
Developing ideas
Students will select and use choreographic devices, structures, processes, and technologies to develop and give form to dance ideas.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare, rehearse, and perform a range of dances and demonstrate an understanding of the performance requirements of the genres and contexts
- describe, explain, and respond to the ways that dance uses elements, devices, structures, performance skills, and production technologies to communicate images, themes, feelings, and moods.
Understanding drama in context
Students will investigate the forms and purposes of drama in different historical or contemporary contexts, including New Zealand drama.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will select and use techniques, conventions, and technologies in a range of dramatic forms.
Developing ideas
Students will research, evaluate, and refine ideas in a range of dramatic forms to develop drama.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will perform and respond to drama and make critical judgements about how elements, techniques, conventions, and technologies are used to create form and meaning in their own and others’ work.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will:
- analyse music from a range of sound environments, styles, and genres, in relation to historical, social, and cultural contexts
- consider and reflect on the influence of music in their own music making and in their lives.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply knowledge of expressive features, stylistic conventions, and technologies through an integration of aural perception and practical and theoretical skills and describe how they are used in a range of music.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- create, structure, refine, and represent compositions using the elements of music, instruments, technologies, and conventions to express imaginative thinking and personal understandings
- reflect on composition processes and presentation conventions.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare, rehearse, interpret, and present performances of music individually and collaboratively, using a range of performance skills and techniques
- reflect on the expressive qualities of music and evaluate their own and others’ music, both live and recorded.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will:
- investigate and analyse the relationship between the production of art works and the contexts in which they are made, viewed, and valued
- consider and reflect on the contexts underlying their own and others’ work.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply knowledge of a range of conventions from established practice, using appropriate processes and procedures.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- generate, develop, and clarify ideas, showing some understanding of established practice
- sequence and link ideas systematically as they solve problems in a body of work, using observation and invention with an appropriate selection of materials.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- identify and analyse processes and procedures from established practice that influence ways of communicating meaning
- investigate, analyse, and evaluate ideas and interpret artists’ intentions in art works.
Level 7
Understanding dance in context
Students will investigate and evaluate the effects of individual, social, cultural, and technological influences on the development of a variety of dance genres and styles.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will extend skills in the vocabulary, practices, and technologies of selected dance genres and styles.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- choreograph solo and group dance works, using choreographic processes, devices, structures, and technologies to communicate choreographic intentions
- generate, plan, and record choreographic ideas and processes.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- apply rehearsal and performance skills to a range of dances, using appropriate techniques and expression to communicate specific intentions
- analyse, explain, and discuss aspects of performance and choreography in a range of dance works.
Understanding drama in context
Students will:
- research the purposes of production, performance, and technologies of drama in a range of contexts, including New Zealand drama
- explore how drama reflects our cultural diversity.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will select and refine the use of techniques, conventions, and technologies in specific dramatic forms.
Developing ideas
Students will research, critically evaluate, and refine ideas to develop drama in specific dramatic forms.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- rehearse and perform works in a range of dramatic forms
- respond to and make critical judgements about rehearsal processes and performances.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will:
- research and analyse music from a range of sound environments, styles, and genres in relation to historical, social, and cultural contexts, considering the impact on music making and production
- apply their understandings of the expressive qualities of music from a range of contexts to a consideration of their influence on their own music practices.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will apply knowledge of expressive features, stylistic conventions, and technologies through an integration of aural perception and practical and theoretical skills and analyse how they are used in a range of music.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- create, structure, refine, and represent compositions and musical arrangements, using technical and musical skills and technologies to express imaginative thinking and personal understandings
- reflect on and evaluate composition processes and presentation conventions.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- prepare, rehearse, present, record, and evaluate sustained performances of music, individually and collaboratively, that demonstrate interpretive understandings
- analyse and evaluate the expressive qualities of music and production processes to inform interpretations of music.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will:
- research and analyse the influences of contexts on the characteristics and production of art works
- research and analyse the influence of relevant contexts on their own work.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will:
- apply understanding from research into a range of established practice to extend skills for particular art-making purposes, using appropriate processes and procedures in selected fields
- extend skills in a range of materials, techniques, and technologies.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- generate, analyse, clarify, and extend ideas in a selected field related to established practice
- use a systematic approach to the development of ideas in a body of work.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- research and analyse how art works are constructed and presented to communicate meanings
- use critical analysis to interpret and respond to art works.
Level 8
Understanding dance in context
Students will investigate, analyse, and discuss the features, history, issues, and development of dance in New Zealand, including the contribution of selected individuals and groups.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will extend and refine skills, practices, and use of technologies in a range of dance genres and styles.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- develop a concept and produce original dance works using appropriate production technologies to communicate choreographic intentions
- record and critically reflect on the development and resolution of dance ideas.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- select and apply rehearsal processes, performance skills, and production technologies to enhance the communication and expression of dance works
- critically analyse, interpret, and evaluate the artistic features and the communication of ideas in a range of dance works.
Understanding drama in context
Students will research, analyse, and critically evaluate how drama, including New Zealand drama, interprets, records, or challenges social and cultural discourse.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will research, analyse, and integrate elements, techniques, conventions, and technologies in dramatic forms for specific purposes.
Developing ideas
Students will research, critically evaluate, and refine ideas to create original drama work.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- analyse, rehearse, and perform works in a range of dramatic forms, assuming a variety of artistic or technical responsibilities
- reflect on and critically evaluate a wide range of works and performances.
Understanding music – Sound arts in context
Students will:
- research, analyse, and evaluate the production and presentation of music works from historical, social, and cultural contexts
- apply their understandings of the expressive qualities of music from a range of contexts to analyse its impact on their own music practices.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will analyse, apply, and evaluate significant expressive features and stylistic conventions and technologies in a range of music, using aural perception and practical and theoretical skills.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- create, structure, refine, and represent compositions and musical arrangements, using secure technical and musical skills and technologies to express imaginative thinking and personal understandings
- reflect on and evaluate composition processes and presentation conventions.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- plan, rehearse, present, record, evaluate, and refine performances of music, individually and collaboratively, demonstrating interpretive understandings
- critically analyse and evaluate the expressive qualities of music and production processes in order to refine interpretations of music.
Understanding the visual arts in context
Students will:
- use research and analysis to investigate contexts, meanings, intentions, and technological influences related to the making and valuing of art works
- research and analyse contexts relevant to their intentions and to the expression of meanings in their own work.
Developing practical knowledge
Students will:
- apply understanding from broad and deep research into the characteristics and constraints of materials, techniques, technologies, and established conventions in a selected field
- extend and refine skills in a selected field, using appropriate processes and procedures.
Developing ideas
Students will:
- generate, analyse, clarify, and regenerate options in response to selected questions or a proposal in a chosen field
- use a systematic approach, selectively informed by recent and established practice, to develop ideas in a body of work.
Communicating and interpreting
Students will:
- research and analyse selected approaches and theories related to visual arts practice
- critically reflect on, respond to, and evaluate artworks.
Reading, writing, and maths teaching time requirements
The teaching and learning of reading, writing, and maths1 is a priority for all schools. So that all students are getting sufficient teaching and learning time for reading, writing, and maths, each school board with students in years 0 to 8 must, through its principal and staff, structure their teaching and learning programmes and/or timetables for delivering the National Curriculum Statements, including this one, to provide:
- 10 hours per week of teaching and learning focussed on supporting their progress and achievement in reading and writing in a typical school week, recognising the important contribution oral language development makes, particularly in the early phases of learning.
- 5 hours per week of teaching and learning focussed on supporting their progress and achievement in maths in a typical school week.
Where reading, writing, and/or maths teaching and learning time is occurring within the context of National Curriculum Statements other than English or mathematics and statistics, progression of students’ reading, writing, and/or maths dispositions, knowledge and skills at the appropriate level must be explicitly and intentionally planned for and attended to.
While the terms reading and writing are used, these expectations are inclusive of alternative methods of communication, including New Zealand Sign Language, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and Braille.
1 For simplicity, ‘maths’ is used as an all-encompassing term to refer to the grouping of subject matter, dispositions, skills, competencies, and understandings that encompass all aspects of numeracy, mathematics, and statistics.
These teaching time requirements came in for most schools and kura with students in years 0 to 8 at the start of Term 1, 2024. Specialist schools with students in years 0 - 8 must ensure this from the start of 2025. Kura with a specified kura board must ensure this from Term 3, 2024.
Heading
New Zealand Curriculum
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning, and assessment in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
1 of 8
The New Zealand Curriculum - English
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of English in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
2 of 8The New Zealand Curriculum - Mathematics and statistics
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of mathematics and statistics in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
3 of 8The New Zealand Curriculum - Science
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of science in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
4 of 8The New Zealand Curriculum - Social sciences
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of social sciences in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
5 of 8The New Zealand Curriculum - Health and physical education
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of health and physical education in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
6 of 8The New Zealand Curriculum - Learning languages
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of learning languages in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
7 of 8The New Zealand Curriculum - Technology
Statement of official policy relating to teaching, learning and assessment of technology in all English medium state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand.
8 of 8
