Curriculum

Curriculum Overview

Allenvale School believes that the principles, values, key competencies and related learning areas which give direction to the curriculum in New Zealand schools are fundamental and that the individual student is central to all learning and teaching.
Our students present with a range of complex learning needs. For us to be able to meet those needs, our school curriculum has been divided into specific programmes of learning, where literacy and numeracy are interwoven throughout. Students’ level of academic ability range from below Level 1 of the New Zealand Curriculum to Level 2.

Foundation Level

The curriculum being delivered below Level 1 is the Foundation and Foundation 14+. The students at this level vary in age range from 5 – 21 years and learning programmes are highly specific, based on developmental learning. Communication skills feature prominently for this population. Specialised communication programmes such as Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) are considered vital to enhancing learning. There is a strong commitment in our school to ensure students can communicate using a range of strategies, (refer to the school’s communication strategy). The key competencies have been integrated into the Foundation Curriculum and form the core component of all planning.

The Foundation Curriculum has been recently reviewed and altered to ensure that fundamental skills are taught in a manner that is practical and that previous learning is built upon. The ‘Carolina Curriculum for Infants and Toddlers’ was adapted and re-worked to enable the developmental stages to fall under the five key competencies; Thinking, Using Language, Symbols and Texts, Managing Self, Relating to Others, Participating and Contributing.

Levels 1 and 2

Planning for students in levels 1 and 2 covers all learning areas, with a major focus on literacy and numeracy. Key competencies are integrated into the programmes of learning so that all competencies are covered over the course of a year. The learning areas such as social sciences, the arts, technology and science are delivered through an integrated approach involving units of work (topics).

The Integrated Curriculum is seen as part of the whole-school curriculum. It has been developed and adapted to meet the teaching and learning needs of junior and intermediate aged students. Units of work are planned around the NZC learning objectives and key competencies. Assessment of selected goals is undertaken to measure the level of achievement and the level of participation.

Senior Level

Our level 1 and 2 senior students undertake the SPEC (South Pacific Educational Courses) programme as their base curriculum.

SPEC is a New Zealand owned, NZQA approved, course provider.
SPEC courses “enhance the New Zealand curriculum with a specific focus on the Key Competencies … aim to promote and demonstrate personal growth, self management, self esteem, motivation and a sense of self worth.” (SPEC Teachers Guidelines).
SPEC courses are based on a negotiated approach to learning. Students are always encouraged to be an active participant in their learning, from planning the work to the conclusion, self-review and reflection. Outcomes are specific to the individual student and are realistic and meaningful.

NZQA supported learning unit standards are offered to senior students either as a support to the SPEC programme of learning or as stand alone units as part of the transition pathway. All supported learning unit standards are at level one.
Best practice in supported learning unit standards integrates teaching, learning and assessment with providers deciding what to teach and how to teach, then selecting the unit standards which best meet the learning outcomes of their programme. When students achieve 40 credits they will be awarded the National Certificate in Work and Community Skills.

Literacy

Our school ensures that all of our students will explore literacy experiences to enrich their lives and be guided to learn how to access literacy for functional and recreational purposes. Meaningful learning experiences, well planned and taught across a range of contexts, enable our students to achieve a measure of independence in everyday life.

Creative ideas and methods of teaching literacy encourage our students in;

• “making meaning of ideas or information they receive” (listening, reading and viewing)
• “creating meaning for themselves or others” (speaking, writing and presenting)

The Literacy Unit plan (for each term) requires the teacher to establish common goals for the class, achievement objectives and learning experiences for individual students and identifying related key competencies. Evaluation of the plan at five week intervals enables teachers to reflect on their teaching and pedagogical practice.

Numeracy

The teaching of and planning for mathematics skills varies markedly across our school. Programmes are planned to meet student’s needs, often as part of an IEP. There are a number of fundamental areas in mathematics which our students need to understand in order for them to function as independently as possible. For our students to make connections with the world around them, learning experiences need to be practical and authentic using everyday materials and situations.
We endeavour to provide our students with learning activities which develop the basic skills across the three areas of the New Zealand mathematics and statistics curriculum:

• Number and algebra
• Geometry and measurement
• Statistics

Key Competencies

The New Zealand Curriculum identifies five key competencies:

• Thinking
• Using language, symbols and texts
• Managing self
• Relating to others
• Participating and contributing

Our curriculum embraces the premise that the key competencies are the key to learning in every learning area. With knowledge of students’ strengths, needs and interests, we aim to engage students with the key competencies. This is particularly evident in the learning stories written for individual students, where through formative assessment, the development of key competencies can be built upon.

Assessment

Assessment practices at Allenvale are varied according to the specific needs of our student population. Assessment procedures and practices are currently under review and a great deal of time and effort has gone into sourcing appropriate assessments, particularly for the students learning within the foundation level. This area has always proven difficult in terms of effective assessment because of the complex nature of these students who present with severe and challenging learning needs. Assessments have had to be adapted to serve this population as it is difficult to source appropriate commercially available tools to provide the assessment information required.

Currently, assessment falls into the following domains:

• Curriculum based assessments – literacy and numeracy (STAR, Benchmark, NumPA and internal assessment)
• Integrated topic assessment – currently covering all learning areas
• Learning Stories – narrative assessment
• Development of learning progressions and exemplars in writing

Allenvale has been involved in the Assess to Learn (AtoL) contract during 2009 and 2010. The major focus of this programme is to assist teachers and students to improve learning and teaching through deepening their understanding of formative assessment.

The five programme goals are as follows:

• Improved student learning and achievement
• Shifts in teacher’s assessment knowledge and practice
• Coherence between assessment processes, practices (including purposeful use of assessment tools) and systems in classrooms and schools so that they promote better learning
• Strong cultures of continuous school improvement that reflect an inquiry based approach
• Strong professional learning communities regionally and nationally

The introduction of Learning Stories as a method of narrative assessment has been extremely positive. Learning Stories are shared with students, their families and whanau as a means of celebration, to inform and to identify next steps.