Our curriculum

It is our main focus as Teachers to make sure that your child feels acknowledged, safe and accepted within our school environment. We endeavor to engage our diverse range of learners through our teaching and classroom environments. We do this by carefully planning our lessons, getting to know all of our children and listening carefully to them.

We value the cultures of our learners and school families. We understand and respect the different cultures represented within our school and work hard to consult between learners, their whanau and iwi.

Extra support

If a child is experiencing difficulty in an area learning or requires additional support, Blaketown School has a range of interventions, in class with our teachers and/or using or teacher aides. The Ministry of Education may also provide additional support to help learners with special needs.

Education outside of the classroom

Each year our older children go on camp. There is a fantastic selection of venues to choose from. We expect children to take part in these events as they are as much of school as our core subjects.

Teachers are encouraged to utilize the opportunities for Education Outside the Classroom. Day trips, local visits and outdoor pursuit's activities all add to the overall programme.

We value parent's assistance on such occasions.

Technology

The technology we require for the children to use is a Chromebook. Parent's need to purchase or lease these for children in year five and above. These are to be used at school and at home to support everyday leaning. The technology is purely a tool that provides their everyday learning resources, locally, nationally and globally.

The Toki Pounamu Educational Trust has access to years of research undertaken by the Manaiakalani Project, where they have developed an approach known as 'Learn, Create, Share'. A philosophy that is already present in our school, in one form or another.

We do not expect children in year one to four to have devices. In year one to four, there are plenty of opportunities to learn using our school Ipads.

Toki pounamu

The Toki Pounamu Project is an approach to teaching and learning to meet the skill needs of the world our students are moving into.

Here at Blaketown School, Rooms 2 and 4 use Chromebooks. Rooms 1 and 3 use Ipads.

If you would like more information on the Toki Pounamu Project, please visit the website.