Learning at Te Aratai College

Te Aratai College provides a strengths- based education, founded on belonging and diversity. We achieve personal excellence through growth and grit.

Te Aratai provides learning pathways to the future, creating for all learners the expectation and opportunities to:

  • achieve success
  • experience wellbeing and develop resilience

  • become lifelong learners who actively contribute to their communities

At Te Aratai College, all learners enthusiastically access the New Zealand curriculum
as evidenced by their academic progress and NCEA. We encourage both learners and teachers to aim for personal excellence, so that our learners’ personal pathways connect beyond their college years into their future.

Learning Sites

The Learning Pathway

Te Aratai has an eye on the future for every one of its learners. Our learners are active shapers of their futures, rather than passive consumers. Te Aratai learners are equipped with the global employment attributes, particularly digital understanding, to be happy and successful
in their future lives and careers.

That is why we believe in a “pathwayed curriculum.” This means the school, our learners and their families and whānau all know how the learning at Te Aratai connects to the learners’ present interests and their post-school futures. Our curriculum is dynamic, challenging and exciting, enabling learners to expand their visions and define their own personal ambitions for the future.

Years 7 – 10 Curriculum

The focus in Tāhuhu (Year 7–8) is engagement. Social learning and student agency are promoted to build capacity for academic learning. The Year 7–8 curriculum is a combination of home-room learning (where differentiated groups are used to accelerate literacy and numeracy
skills) and experiencing specialised subjects in specialist rooms. Coherent and meaningful learning opportunities are provided to ensure learners are fully prepared for the next stage of their learning pathway. Year 9–10 learners have the opportunity to develop skills across all areas of the national curriculum, including Technology, the Arts (Music, Drama and Visual Arts), Physical Education and Health, Languages, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science.
Year 9 and 10 classes are generally mixed ability and students working well below the curriculum levels are supported both within and beyond the classroom programme. Social learning and academic learning are integrated to build capacity for academic success.

Years 11 -13 Curriculum

In the senior years learners are supported to make decisions around their pathway and to understand how their present learning fits into this pathway. The senior curriculum provides a wide range of subjects in preparation for tertiary and career pathways. Tertiary partnerships with the University of Canterbury and Ara ensure learners are prepared for and well supported on their pathway. Dual pathway programmes provide for career pathways such as Construction, Hospitality, Engineering and Landscaping, allowing students to study at tertiary level for one or two days a week while still at school completing Levels 2 and 3 NCEA.

LEARNING SITES

SENIOR SUBJECTS

JUNIOR OPTIONS