C301 Curriculum consistent

Licensing criterion and guidance for C301 Curriculum consistent.

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Criterion C301

The service curriculum is consistent with any prescribed curriculum framework that applies to the service.

Curriculum criteria documentation required

Guidance

The curriculum framework is the Principles | Kaupapa whakahaere and Strands | Taumata whakahirahira of Te Whāriki. More information about the curriculum framework can be found on the Tāhūrangi website.

Te Whāriki – Tāhūrangi

Te Whāriki continues to provide the basis for consistent high quality curriculum delivery in the diverse range of early childhood services in Aotearoa New Zealand. As such it is the best guidance to meet this criterion. In this document curriculum is described as “the sum total of the experiences, activities, and events, whether direct or indirect, which occur within an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development.” (page 10).

The ways in which each early childhood education service works with the curriculum framework will vary. Each service will continue to develop its own curriculum and programmes that reflect the things that are important to the children, their families, the staff, the community and the philosophy of the specific setting. It is important for services to be able to identify how everything we do in an early childhood setting works towards meeting the curriculum framework for the children and families that attend.

Other guidance, like Kei Tua o te Pae, builds from Te Whāriki to provide more detail about ways to do this.

Kei Tua o te Pae – Tāhūrangi

  • How do we know that our service empowers children?

  • How do we reflect the wider world of family and community within our service curriculum?

  • How do we know that our service curriculum reflects the holistic way children learn and grow? What does holistic learning look like?

  • How do we know that our service curriculum is embedded in reciprocal and responsive relationships?

  • How do you learn from your service curriculum and what you notice from children’s learning to deepen your understanding of the principles and strands?

  • How is our understanding of what the strands mean in our service guided by the principles?

  • Where does self-review fit into the curriculum framework?

  • Are our understandings of the principles and strands leading us to ask questions like “why do we do things this way?”

  • How does curriculum leadership happen in our team?

  • How do we bring our understanding of Te Whāriki to bear when reviewing our service philosophy?