Arotahi in years 7-9

In years 7-9, whānau (family) and rangatahi (young people) will work closely with their Learning Advisor 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 student and encompass creative, innovative, academic and diverse ideas inspired by our ākonga. Arotahi intentions can be an independent pathway, or designed together with peers.

The IEM can also incorporate reflections on previous learning, and well-being check-ins, making future goals, or making off-site learning agreements to support arotahi and qualification plans. It can also include linking to the right people and pathways within the school and beyond to support the goals.

During the IEMs and throughout the term as ākonga (students), whānau and LAs collaborate the individualised learning pathway continues to grow.  This partnership supports the student'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, engineering, 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 7-9 communities can also encompass whole Homebase (HB) or class learning experiences planned for a session, a day, a week, a term or longer. Each HB or class 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. 

The personalised plan is then developed and modified in one-to-one meetings in the Homebase with the rangatahi and kaiako (Learning Advisor) as the term continues. These conversations can also 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.)