Our Learners: Te Āhua o ā Tātou Ākonga

This section summarises the most important qualities and characteristics of a graduate of Māori-medium education.

Through the school working together with its community, whānau, hapū and iwi, graduates of Māori-medium schools will achieve:

High Levels of Educational and Socio-cultural Success

• reaching their full potential;
• experiencing academic success;
• living confidently and proudly as Māori;
• competent to support whānau, hapū, iwi and community;
• participating in the Māori world and advocating a Māori world view;
• confidence in being Māori facilitates relationships with other peoples and other cultures;
• understanding their role within the whānau, hapū, iwi, community and wider society.

A Wide Range of Life Skills

• confidence to pursue their own lifelong learning pathways;
• able to contribute to and participate positively in the community;
• respectful of others including children, their own peers and elders;
• living successful and fulfilling lives;
• multi-skilled;
• possessing the skills required for entry into their university of choice.

A Wide Range of Career Choices

• having the skills and knowledge needed to enter their career of choice;
• able to pursue their own pathways;
• having a range of career choices.

Central to Te Marautanga o Aotearoa is the Treaty of Waitangi. Arising from the Treaty are the following overarching principles to guide school-based curricula. These principles are built on a belief that the learner is at the centre of all learning. The principles reflect and affirm the identity of the learner, and of Māori-medium schools. The principles also guide teaching and learning in schools. Schools should embed these principles into their teaching and learning programmes. These principles support the learner, school and whānau to achieve their full educational potential.

The Learner is the Centre of Teaching and Learning

The school-based curriculum will:

• affirm the learner;
• support the learner’s physical, moral, mental and emotional wellbeing;
• provide experiences that enable learners to reach their potential across each learning area;
• strive to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes which enable competent learners.

The Learner has a High Level of Personal Awareness

The school-based curriculum provides for learning programmes which affirm and revitalise Māori language and culture.

The primary aim is that the learner will be confident in the Māori world. Second, the schoolbased curriculum will provide experiences that enable the learner to participate in the wider society. Therefore the school-based curriculum will:

• promote whānau and iwi;
• provide experiences that bring together customary practices of iwi and communities;
• help learners to be successful in the Māori world and the wider world;
• fulfil the expectations, hopes and aspirations of their communities;
• provide experiences and knowledge that will enable the learner to competently enter the wider world.

The Learner Achieves Their Potential

The Curriculum identifies, affirms and acknowledges the learner’s pursuit through a range oflearning environments.

Accordingly, experiences should be provided which:

• engage the learner;
• develop the desired competencies, attitudes and values;
• enable the learner to achieve learning outcomes appropriate to their level of ability;
• are inclusive and responsive to the learning needs and ways of learning of each individual learner.

School, Whānau, Hapū, Iwi and Community Will Work Together

The Curriculum encourages the establishment of relationships between the school and whānau which focus on learning. Therefore, the school-based curriculum should:

• ease the pathway for whānau to participate in all school teaching and learning programmes;
• include experiences outside of the school which are relevant to the whānau and community;
• nurture the language and customs of whānau, hapū and iwi.

Environmental Health is Personal Health

This Curriculum endorses a place for the school, the family, the community, the hapū and iwi groups to focus on the place of the student in their own world. Therefore, the school-based curriculum supports:

• a sustainable environment;
• learning pathways which enable the learner to engage purposefully with the environment;
• holistic teaching programmes;
• learner engagement with their environment.