“This is a major milestone. It’s been almost 20 years since our New Zealand Curriculum was last fully updated, much has changed in our country and the world since then. Going forward, New Zealand will have a clear, knowledge-rich, year-by-year curriculum that sets out what every child should learn and when, ensuring consistency, coherence, and a fairer education system,” Ms Stanford says.
The draft curriculum is now open for six months of consultation for feedback from principals, teachers, and educators as preparation begins for implementation.
Developed by New Zealand educators and curriculum experts, the new curriculum has been benchmarked internationally against those from high-performing education systems around the world. It is designed for Kiwi learners, ensuring both local relevance and global standards.
“This curriculum has been written by Kiwis for Kiwi kids. It is engaging, rigorous, and rooted in the science of how children learn, while celebrating who we are as a nation.”
Highlights include:
Developed by New Zealand educators and curriculum experts, the new curriculum has been benchmarked internationally against those from high-performing education systems around the world. It is designed for Kiwi learners, ensuring both local relevance and global standards.
“This curriculum has been written by Kiwis for Kiwi kids. It is engaging, rigorous, and rooted in the science of how children learn, while celebrating who we are as a nation.”
Highlights include:
- Social Sciences: History covers New Zealand and global history, exploring how people, places, and ideas connect and evolve over time. Students will learn about early explorers, settlers, and migration stories, the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and key civilisations and figures that have shaped societies and decision-making. New strands include Civics and Society and Economic Activity (which introduces financial education to build practical money and economic skills). Geography remains central, deepening an understanding of people and place.
- Science: spans the Natural World and Physical World so that students can explore, investigate and explain the world around them. It includes learning that celebrates prominent scientists, including New Zealanders, who have made influential discoveries or advances, relevant to the content being taught.
- Health & Physical Education: develops movement skills, teamwork, and wellbeing through sport, choreography, and the Relationships and Sexuality strand. A key change is compulsory consent education, ensuring every student can build safe, respectful relationships.
- The Arts: provides a structured pathway for creativity and expression, with a strong focus on indigenous art forms unique to New Zealand. A highlight is the new Music Technology strand, preparing students to create and produce sound across digital platforms. The curriculum provides opportunities for composition, design and creation across multiple art forms.
- Technology: focuses on design, innovation, and creation, helping students to solve problems and become capable creators and informed consumers. Learning includes circuits, coding, food technology, design ethics, and sustainable practices, with opportunities to work in both digital and “unplugged” environments.
- Learning Languages: offers structured progressions across thirteen languages in five groups, Pacific, Asian, European, te reo Māori, and NZ Sign Language, providing a clear pathway from novice to expert and allowing schools to tailor learning to their communities.
“The updated curriculum framework Te Mātaiaho will underpin the deliver of the refreshed learning areas from 2027. For kura, the draft framework for Te Marautanga o Aotearoa is being finalised now and will be available shortly.
“This change is about ambition. It’s about raising achievement. And it’s about better outcomes for our young people. Every student deserves the chance to succeed. We’re making sure that every student, regardless of background, has that chance,” Ms Stanford says.
Erica Stanford is the Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration. She has been the National MP for East Coast Bays since the 2017 election. This article was first published HERE
10 comments:
Good news! Further details are here:
https://newzealandcurriculum.tahurangi.education.govt.nz/new-zealand-curriculum-online/new-zealand-curriculum/learning-areas/science-curriculum/5637165588.c
David Lillis
Just teach them English, Latin, Greek, maths and science. Then give them reading lists to find their way through history, economics and the arts once they have a firm grounding in the other subjects. This approach did not harm many notables from the 19th and early 20th centuries who set the tone for the British Empire. I am sure there will be disagreement from the pedagogy, but I don't care; give pupils the means to make up their own minds, don't propagandize them. I now await the wrath of the woke.
Stanford is an absolute champion.
Stanford took on the NZ government's most hated portfolio (which is why education ministers are usually bottom of the barrel types like Tinetti, Hipkins, and Parata), ignored the many barbs and recriminations aimed at her, then resolutely researched and fixed NZ'S broken education sector.
Its high time Mr Luxon promotes Stanford to Finance Minister.
Unlike the incumbent, Stanford won't seek the counsel of the covid fraud architect!
She just couldn't help herself. Indigenous arts in NZ are very limited in their complexity. How boring for child to be forced to adhere to that for their school experience.
"The Arts: provides a structured pathway for creativity and expression, with a strong focus on indigenous art forms unique to New Zealand."
Erica Stanford would make a great leader/PM. Said that before Luxon got the job.
She has a very good nose for bullshit (except for the climate change stuff maybe)
She's done real stuff in the business world, and handled the toughest job, of being a mother, as well.
Simeon Brown for deputy for my money.
He's got the toughness, in spite of his looks, that we badly need right now.
Anon 9:09 - agree totally. There’s a whole world of fascinating art out there. Why limit the focus to basic, repetitive and frankly pretty boring motifs? They may be unique to NZ, but so what? Please can we get rid of the maori straitjacket. It’s stifling the whole nation.
Every year we were deteriorating with the last curriculum as recorded on international and national tests . A curriculum with aspects of what we had in the past could only succeed since it has similarities to the past when our education system was the envy of the world.
What we used to have was the values , content and discipline of traditional education- explicit instruction , knowledge rich , child disciplined , systematic and cumulative, teacher centered . We also need to get back to homework, with spelling lists ,rote learning tables , completing, marking and correcting work , handwriting and much less screen time, text books, civil behaviour towards others , no gender or overt sexual material ,no Marxist indoctrination from DEI and CRT.
This is what works and there are examples of these things in some overseas schools who have fantastic results and produce happy children with high self-esteem and good behaviour.
Progressive education seeped in developmental constructivism has few of the above aspects and has caused catastrophic failure academically , putting us into a dark age of learning.
Stanford certainly doesn't have:
- Luxons management pedigree,
- Luxons success rebuilding the national party.
- Luxons uncanny ability to get two vehement political foes working amicably together.
- Luxons ability to identify and promote talent.
- Luxons organisation skills getting all ministers except Ardern oops Willis and covid inquiry minister Brooke Van Velden working effectively.
Where Stanford might Trump Luxon is:
- Stanfords ability to take on very difficult foes (teachers and their unions) and win (although no win on pay as yet)
- honesty. Stanford hasn't been caught out lying about reducing council rates, food, and electricity prices to reduce kiwi battlers cost of living.
- Stanford hasn't promoted the dim and dishonest Nicola Ardern oops Willis to finance minister then shielded Ardern oops Willis from parliamentary questions because Ardern oops Willis doesn't know the answers.
- Stanford hasnt tolerated a finance minister who can't remember and understand numbers,
- Stanford hasnt tolerated a finance minister who actively protects NZs kiwi battler robbing, outrageous profit margin generating; power, food, petrol, insurance, and banking cartels.
Which is why I'd keep Luxon but promote Stanford to finance minister.
That's just anonymous's opinions of course. Luxon's detractors may have other opinion's. And apostrophe's.
What does Gaynor have against Cathode Ray Tube televisions? Sure, it’s archaic technology, but I hardly see how they have anything to do with comedian Groucho Marx. Baffling.
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