Social+Studies


 * || ==** Current Action Plan **== ||
 * || ==[[file:Social Studies Action Plan 2013.pdf]]== ||

= CURRICULUM POLICY - SOCIAL STUDIES =

__ Adopted by BoT July 1998 __ __ Reviewed on a 4-yearly cycle – last review October 2012 __

The Social Studies learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens. Contexts are drawn from the past, present, and future and from places within and beyond New Zealand.
 * Rationale **

To develop students’ knowledge and understandings of their own role within human society as they study:
 * Purposes **
 * 1) People’s organisation in communities and the rights, roles, and responsibilities of people as they interact within a community. Students learn about participating as a member of the community, both as an individual and as a member of a group.
 * 2) The contribution of culture and heritage to identity and the nature and consequences of cultural interaction.
 * 3) People’s interaction with places and the environment and the ways in which people represent, perceive, interpret and interact with places and environments. They come to understand the relationships that exist between people and the environment.
 * 4) Relationships between people and events, through time, and interpretations of these relationships.
 * 5) People’s allocation and management of resources and people’s participation in economic activities.

1. The main way to achieve this will be to develop in the students an empathetic and valid understanding of their own and other people’s way of life; both in New Zealand and elsewhere, in the present, in the past and the implications for the future. The main purpose being to help students to be at ease with, and to appreciate, individual and cultural difference. 2. Implementation: teachers will use a variety of learning activities, including SOLO and information technologies that will encourage co-operative learning, independent learning, critical and creative thinking, values exploration and social action. 3. Cultural (Bicultural and Multicultural): Programmes will - 4. Social Studies programmes will provide opportunities for students to investigate and make informed judgements on current issues. 5. Social Studies programmes will help prepare students to live in a rapidly changing world by developing their confidence to contribute and shape future society.
 * Guidelines **
 * Explore the unique nature of New Zealand society and its bicultural heritage; the status and the culture of Māori as tangata whenua; the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi as the founding document of New Zealand, which established the partnership of Māori as tangata whenua and other settlers represented at that time by the British Crown
 * Include concepts that are steeped in Maori culture and recognised as integral to the social studies curriculum.
 * Recognise and value the traditions, histories and languages of the cultures within New Zealand.
 * Ensure children will interact in an environment where the teachers’ language and resource materials are inclusive and respectful of all peoples within society.

Students will gain knowledge, skills, and experience that help them to understand, participate in, and contribute to the local, national and global communities in which they live.
 * Conclusion **