Arotahi in Years 1-6 (5-year-olds to 11-year-olds)

In years 1-6, whānau (family) and tamariki (children) will work closely with their Learning Advisor (LA) during Individual Education Meetings (IEMs) and throughout the term to design personalised arotahi pathways. These pathways can include multiple goals spanning a range of passions, interests and challenges or be focused on a single area. The intention is for arotahi to place students at the centre of their learning,  ideally led by the child and encompass creative, innovative, academic and diverse ideas inspired by our tamariki. 

During the IEMs and throughout the term as ākonga (students), whānau and LAs collaborate on the learning journey, the individualised learning pathway can evolve.  This partnership supports the child's arotahi pathways in various ways and can include trips to explore  interests, interviews in the community,  curriculum support,  researching and investigating leads at home and school, creating art, visiting galleries, and engaging with artists, scientists, musicians and environmentalists. The approaches to supporting tamariki in achieving their goals are as unique as the goals themselves. 

Arotahi doesn't always need to be an individual learning goal. Many students create shared goals, including initiatives like organising impact events with beach clean-ups or Wearable Art exhibitions, achieving football/fitness goals, creating art, starting a small business or organising a chess championship. The possibilities are as diverse as our community of learners. 

Arotahi in the years 1-6 communities can also encompass whole Homebase (HB) (class) learning experiences planned for a session, a day, a week, a term or longer. Each HB may express arotahi differently adapting and redesigning experiences to meet the unique needs of the learners leading within it. 

Whānau support at IEMs and throughout the term is key to our students realising their arotahi journeys, whether in the HB or in the community. 

All of these intentions are then recorded in our Learning Management system also called Arotahi which can be found underneath the A at the top of our front page on the school website. 

Links below

The links below provide a handful of tools you could use to support planning an arotahi pathway or spark ideas for further learning. 

(As you explore these tools you will see the myriad of iterations and terms used for self-directed student learning or supported self-directed student learning. This was one of the reasons we have the word arotahi - to encompass these ideas as possibilities and to go beyond this by realising our Special Character.)