Local Curriculum

A little school with a big heart!

At Ridgeview we take pride in giving our students all the advantages of a small school while still giving them the same experiences as a larger school. Our school has a strong whānau feel and every child is known and cared for by every teacher. Our values of Respect, Excellence and Positive Relationships are central to all our learning and interactions in the classroom, on the playing fields and when we are out in the community. 

Through conversations with our tamariki and consultation within our school and local communities, we have adapted the New Zealand Curriculum to teach and learn in ways that suit our children and their strengths, and to cover the curriculum in a way that meets the aspirations of our community.

Literacy

We started our Structured Literacy journey during the Covid Lockdown. We currently use the Sunshine Scope and Sequence as the basis for our Structured Literacy. This is a phonic based way of learning to recognise letter-sounds and then putting the sounds together to form words. The children learn the sounds in a prescribed order and once they have a minimum number of sounds under their belt, they apply their learning to specially written books.

 

Once our children reach the reading age of a Year 3, they move on to Colour Wheel, Junior Journals, School Journals and finally on to novels. As they progress through the school the emphasis moves from decoding to be able to read, to reading to understand.

Our Writing programme links in with our Structured Literacy, as well as focusing on different genres. Once the children have learned the basic sounds they are encouraged to sound them out and write them down. As they progress and develop writing skills, we introduce them to different writing genres. 

We also use The Code spelling programme. This is to support reading and writing in the school. Each child takes part in the spelling programme for a short time every day.

Mathematics

In 2024 we worked with Lucie Cheeseman from MathsMatters NZ to revise our Maths programme to move towards a problem solving approach. Our aim was to modernise our approach to teaching and learning maths as well as making our maths programme engaging for all. Our students have really taken to the new approach and are really enjoying Maths! We are now in a good position to transition to the Refreshed Maths Curriculum. 

Inquiry

We use our Inquiry Model of Spark – Take off – Mahi – Show and Share in our wider curriculum. This model can be used for an indepth look at an aspect of our curriculum or as a one-off for a lesson such as writing. 

Health

We cover a wide variety of topics in our health curriculum and base our learning on the needs of the children. We cover everything from relating to others to personal well-being to providing our students with strategies to cope with their lives and relationships. We also pair up with our local police officer and look at safety online, safety on the roads and take part in their Keeping Ourselves Safe programme.

Physical Education

Our kids are country kids and physical education is a very important part of their daily routine. We are fortunate enough to have our very own heated school pool! Our pool is used for Swimming lessons in terms 1 and 4 where our students are able to swim 3 days a week, every week, for half of the year. Our pool is also open after school and on weekends in Term 1 and 4 and also for private hire during this time.

Our physical education programme encompasses sport, games, activities such as skipping, running and gymnastics as well as athletics. We take our students to events such as cross country, inter-school athletics, rippa, soccer and the mud run. 

Performing Arts (Music/Dance/Drama)

We have private music lessons available for our students as well as music sessions in class. Every second year our school puts on a production where every student (and we really do mean EVERY!) student is involved and has the opportunity to perform on stage. Our DanceCrew takes part in the Northern Bays Cluster production at the Bruce Mason Theatre.

Camp

Every three years we take our Year 4 to 6s to Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre at Long Bay. Our aim is to make sure that every child has the opportunity to attend camp at primary school. 

Prizegiving

At the end of every year we hold a prizegiving where we acknowledge those who have excelled at school. Our students perform and show off their talents.

Market day

Each year our students set up games and make items to sell on our Mini Market Day. This is a great opportunity for our students to get creative, for our community to come together, and to fundraise for our tamariki.

Matariki breakfast

Each year for Matariki we have a Matariki Breakfast where our whole school community is invited and the school provides a breakfast for our staff, students and their whanau.