Te Whāriki update

New Zealand’s world-leading early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki has been updated and is now available.

Education Minister Hekia Parata released the updated curriculum document today. You can read her release here.

The updated Te Whāriki includes two documents in one flip book: Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa Early childhood curriculum and Te Whāriki at te Kōhanga Reo. This presentation clearly shows the unique indigenous curriculum pathway for children in kōhanga reo alongside a bicultural pathway for children in early childhood education. 

Te Whāriki (2017) reflects today’s early learning contexts and changes in theory and practice that have occurred over the past 20 years.  It supports early learning services to collaborate with parents and whānau to provide a rich curriculum that affirms children’s identities, languages and cultures and reflects local priorities.  

The overall vision and structure of principles, strands and goals has been strengthened.  Te Whāriki now has fewer learning outcomes – reduced from 118 to 20 - and provides links to the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa to better enable teachers, kaiako and educators to support children’s learning continuity as they move to school or kura. 

Te Whāriki (2017) is now available online. 

The updated curriculum is supported by a new portal on Te Kete Ipurangi website - tewhariki.tki.govt.nz - which will be available from 13 April.  This website has been designed to provide implementation guidance, practice examples and resources and will be expanded and developed over time.
 
The Ministry of Education has committed an additional $4 million dollars for the professional learning and development (PLD) of teachers, kaiako and educators to support the implementation of Te Whāriki.  

Further information about PLD will be published on tewhariki.tki.govt.nz on 1 May 2017.  PLD will include local workshops and webinars and the appointment of ‘curriculum champions’ who will lead the establishment of curriculum inquiry networks. The Te Whāriki PLD programme will run from May 2017 to June 2018.

Hard copies of Te Whāriki will be mailed out to all early learning services at the start of term two along with a poster and a pamphlet for parents. Additional copies can be ordered directly from Ministry of Education Customer Services online at www.thechair.minedu.govt.nz. By email orders@thechair.minedu.govt.nz or free phone 0800 660 662, free fax 0800 600 663.

It is the first time Te Whāriki has been updated since it was first published in 1996.

The update was carried out by a team of academics and practitioners.  You can read about the writers here. The original writers of Te Whāriki also assisted with the update. Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust led the update of Te Whāriki a te Kōhanga Reo.

The update of Te Whāriki is part of a wider work programme across the education system to support children’s personalised learning pathways within Communities of Learning| Kāhui Ako.
 
For inquiries about Te Whāriki please contact Early.Learning@education.govt.nz