Curriculum / Teaching and Learning

The Preparatory School curriculum is developed under the guidelines and philosophy of the New Zealand Curriculum and takes into consideration the special nature of St Andrew’s College. It takes, as its starting point, a vision of our young people as lifelong learners who are confident and creative, connected, and actively involved. It includes a clear set of principles on which to base curriculum decision making. It sets out values that are to be encouraged, modelled, and explored. It defines five Key Competencies that are critical to sustained learning and effective participation in society, and that underline the emphasis on lifelong learning.

Literacy remains the largest and most important learning area (includes Reading, Writing, Spelling, Visual and Oral Language). Literacy accounts for 60–65 per cent of the weekly timetable. Numeracy (Mathematics), Enrichment (specialist areas), and Units of Inquiry make up most of the remaining time in the timetable.

The school is committed to enhancing strategies and skills for learning and high levels of understanding. A quality learning environment encourages discussion and questioning, and for the student is engaging, differentiated, and meaningful. It also develops interpersonal skills.

A significant development in interpersonal skills for teachers and students during 2021 was the introduction of the new pastoral care and values system, called StAC-UP. StAC-UP was developed following a school wide pastoral review in Term 4, 2020. It provides a valuable blueprint for a positive and encouraging learning environment, in which all children feel safe and cared for. In the classroom, playground, and extra-curricular activities students and staff have implemented the following expectations: • Be Safe – inside, outside, and online; • Be Ready – to learn in all situations; • Be Respectful – towards others and yourself.

StAC-UP underpins all interactions with students, colleagues, and the community and guides our response when approaching situations of conflict or difficulty. StAC-UP is brought to life through explicit teaching and learning in the following areas; Bounce Back, Restorative Conversations, Key Competencies, as well as a raft of health programmes.

A Student-centred Learning Approach where learning is visible, has continued to underpin and drive teaching in the Preparatory School. In 2021, the focus has been on teacher clarity, which according to Professor John Hattie, is one of the most important learning interventions available. Specifically, the following areas were a focus: • learning intentions and success criteria are visible to students. Students know what they are learning and what success looks like; • students have opportunities to self-assess their work; • formative feedback is given to students; • feedback is related to the learning intentions.

The Leadership team added to their own skill set as part of this process through the introduction of appraisal observations across syndicate levels and specialist teachers. Professional conversations around the moderation of our appraisal processes and different feedback strategies for students in various parts of the school proved valuable.

The Preparatory staff’s ability to deliver learning online was again put to the test as it was across the school and wider community. COVID-19 provided an opportunity for staff to explore how to: • makes lesson instructions clear, explicit, and easy to follow at home; • provide timely feedback around learning in an online environment; • use tools such as Teams and Seesaw to provide meaningful learning opportunities at home. There was a combination of ‘just in time’ learning and planned professional development for staff prior to the Term 3 lockdown. Staff attended onsite and online tutorials and PD sessions, run by the ICT team. There was also a significant amount of collegial sharing of knowledge and tutoring of fellow staff members through this time as staff determined new ways to engage with learners at home. As a result of this and, taking from the lessons of 2020, the transition to online learning was seamless. Students were able to engage with their teacher through online video calls as well as engage in group work with their peers. Students used a variety of familiar online learning platforms to continue to progress with their learning goals. Staff were able to access results and adapt the learning to differentiate for individual needs. 2021 results in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics indicate that there was no dip in achievement for our students during this time.

During the lockdown period the Preparatory School used Microsoft forms to check on the well-being of students and their engagement with learning while at home. This provided valuable information to classroom teachers as well as the Pastoral team on who needed extra support over this unusual time. The Preparatory School will continue to use these tools in future years to gauge both the quality of teaching and learning, and the pastoral needs of students.

In 2021, there continued to be a focus on the use of Te Reo Māori in classrooms. All teachers attended professional development with an external tutor and implemented this learning in their classrooms. Te Reo Māori is one of New Zealand’s three official languages and providing our students with a basic understanding of Te Reo Māori and Tikanga has had many benefits for them. These sessions had a dual focus of actively encouraging staff to develop confidence in their own speaking while providing practical activities for use in the classroom. In addition to this, two staff also undertook and successfully completed a Level 1 Te Reo Māori course run onsite by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. It has been encouraging to see an increased use of Te Reo Māori throughout the Preparatory School. Students have displayed an increasing sense of pride in the New Zealand Māori culture, as well as an understanding of how languages work and how these skills can be transferred to other areas of learning.

The Digital Technologies Curriculum, which became mandatory in all schools across Years 1–10 in 2020, continued to be a focus during the year. The new content challenged learners to develop their computational thinking and to create digital outcomes to solve realworld problems. Targeted professional development sessions and targeted teaching through two in-school specialists saw significant progress for staff and students. Anneke Kamo spent time in classes in the Junior and Middle Syndicate, while Wilj Dekkers spent time with Year 7–8 classes and teachers to create units of work to support this area.

During 2021, professional learning groups (PLGs) saw a strong focus on Health and well-being topics, including the implementation of StAC-UP. Bounce Back! became our key resource for teaching Health across Years 1–7. Bounce Back! is an award-winning programme that supports teachers in their efforts to promote positive mental health, well-being and resilience for students, and build safe and supportive class and school learning environments. Managing access to social media, online material, and cyber safety, continued to impact on the well-being of our students, particularly given the added disruption COVID-19 brought to the picture. A series of sessions for parents was offered across 2021 to assist with parent education particularly in well-being and managing the digital environment at home. These were well attended and will continue in 2022.