Sunday, August 06, 2006

New Zealand Curriculum

The revised curriculum (Draft for consultation) was released this week by the Ministry of Education.

Discovery Time enthusiasts will be delighted to see that it aligns very closely with the basic tenets of our programme. The section on effective pedagogies affirm everything we have been saying! Yeah!

We originally developed the programme around 'Curriculum Areas' and 'Essential Skills', hence the strong focus on these in the planning sheet, so we were very keen to see what the changes would be.

The Essential Skills has been replaced by the Key Competencies: managing self, relating to others, participating and contributing, thinking, using language symbols and texts. These work perfectly for Discovery Time - fantastic!

We are in the process of rewording parts of the planning sheet to reflect the curriculum changes and to incorporate some of the feedback we have had from teachers.
If you contact me I will send a copy as soon as it's ready.

A copy of the curriculum arrived in schools last week, so don't forget to hunt it down and have a look at it.