Kia ora koutou, and welcome to the final Early Learning Newsletter for this year.

In it, you’ll find more information on the gazetting of the full Te Whāriki framework, including what you need to help prepare for its implementation in May next year.

We’re also proud to share two big launches that we think will make a real difference to your mahi: Tāhūrangi, which launched earlier this month – our new online curriculum hub to make your search for quality curriculum content and news quicker and easier; and Kōwhiti Whakapae, which launched in October – the new curriculum resource to help you strengthen your teaching, learning, and assessment practices. You can read more and explore them for yourself below.

Together with all that is a host of new resources to support your work, including eLearn modules and print resources related to teaching Pacific learners and Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories.

It might be too early for a ‘happy holidays’, but I do wish you all the best for the rest of the year. We’ll be back to share more news and resources with you in 2024.

Ellen MacGregor-Reid

Hautū | Deputy Secretary

Te Poutāhū | Curriculum Centre

curriculum.newsletter@education.govt.nz

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You may be aware that the full framework of Te Whāriki was gazetted in April this year, to be implemented from 1 May 2024. We now have a framework with three distinct parts:

• The existing bicultural framework of Te Whāriki (Part A – Te Ara Whānui).
• The new pathway for Puna Reo and other Māori-medium and bilingual services (Part B – Te Ara Māori).
• Te Whāriki a Te Kōhanga Reo (Part C). 

You might also know that services are required to choose either Te Ara Whānui or Te Ara Māori as the curriculum framework they will implement. You will already be familiar with Te Ara Whānui, the existing pathway in Te Whāriki. Te Ara Māori is the new pathway, where the principles, strands, goals, and learning outcomes have been interpreted through a te ao Māori lens and built from a te ao Māori foundation. That choice needs to be made by 1 May next year, and a guide is being developed to help services make that decision.

More resources to support you are on their way

There are a range of resources coming to help you implement the strands, goals, and learning outcomes of Te Whāriki, and support the design of your local curriculum. In addition to what’s already available online, we’ve sent your services:

• a poster that provides a visual representation of both Te Ara Whānui and Te Ara Māori
• learning outcome cards for Te Ara Māori (sent to Māori-medium and bilingual services).

And, available for you early next year:

• goals cards, with provocations to help you design an environment that supports ākonga learning and development across the strands of the curriculum
• a video outlining the development of Te Ara Māori
• eLearn modules to support Ngā Aho o Te Ara Māori
• new eLearn modules for Pacific bilingual and immersion services.

You might already know that earlier this month, Tāhūrangi went live: our new digital home for curriculum content, teaching resources, and news. It’s also where all our new curriculum content, resources, and teaching materials will be released in future. There’s a lot to like about the new platform – we’ve built it specifically to help you find, organise, and share the content that’s important to you.

You can visit Tāhūrangi here:

https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz 

It’s important to know Tāhūrangi will eventually replace Te Whāriki Online, so that you know exactly where to go to find content that supports your mahi. We’ll let you know before we make those changes, but here’s what it will mean in the future:

• All of the content related to Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō nga mokopuna o Aotearoa Early Childhood Curriculum is already available on Tāhūrangi. This part of Te Whāriki Online will soon be retired, and will no longer be accessible.
• Te Whāriki a Te Kōhanga Reo will be available for you to access through a link on the Tāhūrangi. Related material will be moved directly onto Tāhūrangi – we will let you know when this is done.

If you have any questions, you can email the team at tahurangi@education.govt.nz

Over the past two years, we have been developing Kōwhiti Whakapae in collaboration with early learning kaiako and organisations – including with help from many of you. It has been designed to help strengthen teaching, learning, and assessment practices for kaiako using Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa – and we’re excited to announce that it’s now ready for use.

Kōwhiti Whakapae is built on the foundations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Te Whāriki principles, the inclusion of all children, and the nurturing of their identities, languages, and cultures in your teaching practice.

It focuses on three areas across the strands of Te Whāriki to support children’s expanding capabilities and their growing identities as learners: social & emotional, oral language & literacy, and maths. The social & emotional area of Kōwhiti Whakapae is available now, and the oral language & literacy and maths areas will be made available in 2024.

Each area guides you through a process to:

• lay the groundwork for an enabling environment to strengthen learning for all children
• notice and recognise children’s current capabilities in relation to four phases of progress: Te Korekore, Te Pō, Te Ao Mārama and Te Ao Hōu – including helping you identify when additional learning supports may be needed
• respond to children’s learning at different phases of progress to scaffold, consolidate, or expand learning over time
• document and communicate learning in ways that use evidence gained over time.

It also includes:

• assessment examples, showing how you might use the resource to enrich your existing formative assessment practices
• whānau guides, to support your conversations and collaboration with whānau.

You can explore Kōwhiti Whakapae now:

https://kowhiti-whakapae.education.govt.nz/

Teaching and learning about Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories (ANZH) relates to the vision of Te Whāriki that all mokopuna will grow up strong in their identity, language, and culture.

We have developed a range of resources to help you engage with ANZH in your setting, including:

• Why Histories – three eLearn modules designed to get you started thinking about histories
• Pepehatia! – a suite of resources for kaiako and tumuaki to explore the concept, tikanga, and purpose of pepeha. This includes an eLearn module, as well as printable blackline illustrations and a kaiako guide
• Kōrero cards – a set of eight A4 cards with an image on the front to stimulate interest about a key message from our shared histories. On the back are ideas about talking with tamariki, intentional teaching strategies, links to Te Whāriki, and ideas for further discussion. A set of these cards has been distributed to early learning settings.

 You can find both of the eLearn courses here:

Education – Learning Management System

And order more copies of the Kōrero cards here:

Down the Back of the Chair

For more information, guidance, and ideas, explore our website:

Te Whāriki | Tāhūrangi

This year the Action Plan for Pacific Education was refreshed, with the most significant change being a refresh of Key Shift 1: work reciprocally with diverse Pacific communities to respond to unmet needs, including growing and supporting Pacific bilingual and immersion education pathways. Its focus has been shifted – where it previously prioritised providing support after Covid-19, it is now focused on developing Pacific bilingual and immersion education pathways.

Here are some resources that you might find useful in supporting your Pacific learners:

• Tāhūrangi has a dedicated page highlighting Pacific values and languages for early learning kaiako of Pacific learners. On it, you’ll find curriculum design guides in five Pacific languages, stories of practice from Pacific services across the country, as well as links to other resources like Tapasā, the Action Plan for Pacific Education, resources from the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, and Core Education’s work on supporting successful transitions of Pacific children. You can see the page here:

Pacific learners – supporting and enhancing success (education.govt.nz)

• Pacific voices, can you hear us? – a new eLearn module that uses the conch as a call to advocacy to support children of Pacific heritages in your community. It shares migration stories, talks about the importance of metaphor, links to key documents, and shares simple words and phrases in multiple languages.
• Pacific horizons, do you let us fly? – another new eLearn module that uses the conch in the same way, and takes learners on a deeper dive to strengthen understanding of Pacific values and consider what matters in your learning community.