Waterlea Curriculum

Our Local Curriculum at Waterlea School 

Tuurangawaewae is one of the most well-known and powerful Māori concepts. Literally tūranga (standing place), waewae (feet), it is often translated as ‘’a place to stand”. Tuurangawaewae are places where we feel especially empowered and connected. They are our foundation, our place in the world, our home.

At Waterlea, we believe it’s essential to ground learning in the place our tamariki know best—their own local environment.
Our learners are surrounded by rich opportunities to connect with the unique history, culture, and natural world of our area. Whether it’s exploring the stories of the land through visits to Ihumātao and Te Pane o Mataoho, discovering life on the farm at Ambury, or engaging with nature through Forest School, learning is made real and relevant. Our students learn about the Manukau Harbour across their time at Waterlea—its ecosystems, it’s rich history and significance, and our responsibility as kaitiaki. They walk its shores, kayak its waters, and explore the creatures and plants that call it home.

At every opportunity, our place is woven into our learning, helping students build a strong sense of identity, belonging, and responsibility.

 

We start and finish each day with karakia, as we believe that following this tikanga is an important part of our culture at Waterlea School.

Karakia Timatanga
Karakia Whakakapi 

 

Maths at Waterlea School

Waterlea School is excited to be using Numicon as a key tool in our mathematics programme. Numicon is a unique and highly effective approach to teaching maths that helps children understand abstract mathematical ideas through visual and practical experiences. It is the structured maths approach we are using to unpack the refreshed Maths New Zealand Curriculum. Numicon has been introduced to the junior and senior part of the school. It will be introduced to the middle part of the school in 2026.

What is Numicon?

Imagine brightly coloured, interlocking shapes with holes – that’s Numicon! Each shape represents a number from 1 to 10. For example, the ‘3’ piece has three holes, and the ‘5’ piece has five holes.

Why is Numicon so effective?

• Hands-On Learning: Children learn best by doing.  Numicon allows children to physically manipulate the shapes, helping them to see and feel numbers and mathematical relationships.
• Visual Understanding: The distinct colours and patterns of the Numicon shapes help children develop a strong visual image of numbers. This visual understanding is incredibly powerful for building number sense and understanding concepts like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• Concrete to Abstract: Numicon follows a ‘concrete, pictorial, abstract’ (CPA) approach. Children first explore concepts with the physical Numicon shapes (concrete), then move to drawing pictures of them (pictorial), before finally working with numbers and symbols (abstract). This gradual progression builds deep understanding.
• Problem Solving: By physically combining and separating the shapes, children can explore different ways to solve problems, fostering a deeper understanding of mathematical operations.
• Building Confidence: Because Numicon makes maths concepts clear and accessible, children often feel more confident and successful in their learning. This positive experience helps build a strong foundation for future mathematical journeys

                   

How will your child use Numicon?

Your child will use Numicon in various ways, from learning to count and recognise numbers in their early years, to exploring place value, fractions, and even early algebra as they progress. It helps them to:

• Understand what numbers ‘look like’.
• See how numbers relate to each other (e.g., that 5 is made up of 2 and 3).
• Grasp concepts like odd and even numbers.
• Develop mental maths strategies.

We believe Numicon is an invaluable tool in making mathematics engaging, understandable, and enjoyable for all our students. 

Reading and Writing at Waterlea School

At Waterlea School, we are committed to providing the best possible start for your child’s literacy journey. That’s why we implement the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) in our junior school (Years 0-2, and in Years 3-4), a comprehensive and highly effective programme designed to build strong, confident readers and writers. It will be implemented in Year 5-6 in 2026.

What is BSLA?

BSLA is a research-based literacy approach developed by experts at the University of Canterbury. It is a systematic and explicit way of teaching foundational literacy skills, focusing on what children need to become skilled decoders and comprehending readers. It ensures children learn:

1. Phonological Awareness: The ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words (e.g. blending sounds, segmenting sounds). This is a crucial pre-reading skill.
2. Phonics: The understanding of how letters and groups of letters (graphemes) represent sounds (phonemes). Children learn to “decode” words by blending sounds together.
3. Vocabulary: Building a rich vocabulary of words and their meanings, essential for comprehension.
4. Reading Fluency: The ability to read accurately, at an appropriate pace, and with expression, freeing up brainpower for understanding.
5. Comprehension: The ultimate goal of reading – understanding what is read, making connections, and thinking critically about the text.
6. Writing: Applying phonics and language knowledge to spell words and construct sentences and longer texts.

Why are we using BSLA?

• Evidence-Based: BSLA is grounded in extensive research about how children learn to read and write, particularly through the “Science of Reading.” This means we are using methods proven to be effective.
• Systematic and Explicit: Learning is carefully structured and taught step-by-step. Each new skill builds on previously learned ones, ensuring a strong foundation and no gaps in learning. Teachers explicitly teach each concept rather than leaving it to chance.
• Multi-Sensory: BSLA incorporates various senses (seeing, hearing, doing) to help children learn. This might involve using actions for sounds, manipulating letters, or engaging in word-building games.
• Focus on Foundational Skills: By prioritising phonological awareness and phonics, BSLA equips children with the tools they need to decode words independently, quickly building their confidence and ability to read.
• Early Intervention: The programme includes robust assessment tools that allow teachers to identify early on if a child needs extra support, enabling timely intervention to address any learning gaps.

What does BSLA look like in the classroom?

In our Year 1-3 classrooms, you’ll see your child engaged in:

• Daily, structured phonics lessons
• Activities that focus on listening to and manipulating sounds
• Reading decodable books that align with the phonics they are learning
• Practising spelling and writing words using their phonics knowledge
• Building vocabulary and discussing texts to develop comprehension

In our Year 4 classrooms, you’ll see your child engaged in:

• structured and explicit teaching of oral language, reading, and writing
• targeted vocabulary instruction with an emphasis on complex vocabulary choices and descriptive language
• learning to understand and interpret a wider range of texts, making connections between stories and real-life experiences. 
• differentiated small group reading sessions using aligned texts, based on their individual skill levels. 

 

We are excited about the positive impact BSLA is having on our students’ literacy development, empowering them to become strong, confident, and lifelong readers and writers.

In our Senior School classrooms, BSLA will start in 2026.

If you have any questions about BSLA or how it supports your child’s learning, please feel free to speak with your child’s classroom teacher.