Autahi 2026: how our programme works

 

At our workshop this week, we aimed to provide insight into how our Autahi programme comes together this term. If you didn't make it - or even if you did - here are the main ideas we shared.

When you come into Autahi in the morning, one of the first things you'll see is our Rātaka/Timetable. 

We encourage our students to check the Rātaka as we go through the day so that they know what's happening next. You'll see that our day is varied - and jam-packed. We can imagine it as a delicious, fresh salad with many different ingredients. 

In preparing our daily Autahi 'salad', we have to ensure we're using a range of ingredients. These fall into five basic categories: Literacy and Maths (we are mandated to teach five hours each of Reading, Writing and Maths each week), Health and Wellbeing (which includes our Positive Education programme), Sustainability and the Arts.

You'll see the word 'Inquiry' on the Rātaka. We use this word for exploratory, discovery-based learning, an approach we often apply in the Sustainability space but can work throughout the curriculum. We're beginning this term by inquiring into our feelings and strategies to self-regulate, but will be moving on to explore both compost and stories of our local places.

Not included in the Rātaka are the many times during the day that we stop for a brain and body break to jump around, dance, go for a run or game, do yoga, make music... There are so many benefits to this: our children learn through experience what helps them to self-regulate and be ready to learn, it helps to bond us as a whānau - and it's great fun! Last but by no means least, play and playful learning are also essential to our programme, with opportunities for free play sprinkled through the day.

Every day draws something from each of these categories. There is a lot to cover here. However, although some topics benefit from being taught in dedicated, skills-building sessions (phonics and reading, for instance), there is a lot to be gained from working in more than one area of our curriculum at a time. For instance, right now in Autahi our Writing explores our friendships and relationships, taking us into the Positive Education space related to our current Inquiry topic. To continue the salad analogy, we might take a bite of avocado and tomato at the same time - and it's extra delicious!

Let's drill down a little further to the foundations of our programme. It is underpinned by three key documents: the New Zealand Curriculum, our 2026 Strategic Plan and our Local Curriculum (click on the links to read more). These last two are written in consultation with our community and aim to reflect what our parents want to see in our classrooms: Sustainability and the Arts are a strong area of focus for us as a result of these consultations.

Finally, at the heart of our programme design are our Autahi children: we aim to balance all the 'must dos' from the curriculum and build our programme around their personalities, interests and needs. Careful observation and on-going light-touch assessments enable us to build children's skills and knowledge step by step. This means that our programme will look a little different each year and will change through the next twelve months as we respond to new starters and our children grow.

Keep and eye on Seesaw for the latest on what your child is doing in class. We will also use Seesaw alongside our Blogs to keep you informed as we move through our inquiry topics this term.