The Birchwood Curriculum reflects our vision: Together We Learn, Together We Grow. 

Our GROW values are evident in how we expect our children to behave but also woven into how we learn at Birchwood. 

The 'togetherness' of our vision is represented in our school wide inquiries.  Each year an over-arching theme underpins the major learning focuses.  Planning teams across all areas of the school work collaboratively to create a school wide inquiry outline.  This follows Kath Murdoch’s approach around inquiry learning.  Inquiries may be based on school wide events, problems that need to be addressed or any topical issues.  When we engage our learners in a process of inquiry, we begin by spending time tuning in to their prior knowledge and gathering student voice to generate curiosity.  The inquiry process then follows the students’ areas of interest, so contexts may be varied across the school.

Features of our school based inquiries are the Initial Engagers and the Finales.  Initial Engagers are activities or events that will stimulate the students’ interests and initial wonderings.  The Finales are school wide events where we invite the wider community to see the new learning in action.

Literacy 

Our school-wide instructional practice in literacy is grounded in Structured Literacy pedagogy, which ensures that reading, spelling, and writing are taught explicitly, systematically, and sequentially. To support fidelity across all year levels, we partner with iDeaL as our professional learning provider. iDeaL equips our teaching staff with an evidence-based framework for assessment, data analysis, and lesson planning.

Every classroom implements explicit spelling instruction that unpacks the rules of how the English language works. In our junior school, teachers follow the iDeaL scope and sequence, ensuring that foundational reading instruction is supported by decodable texts. This approach ensures our ākonga build decoding confidence using sound-spelling relationships they have already been explicitly taught. Across the junior and senior schools, ākonga are grouped for reading so that their needs are best met.

Every term, ākonga across the entire school focus on writing to persuade, entertain, and inform. By revisiting these three core genres each term, our ākonga explore text structures, vocabulary, and audience awareness at increasing levels of complexity. Teachers moderate twice a year, and we have regular meetings to discuss our priority learners' progress. To ensure consistency, and to fulfill the MoE requirements, reading and writing are taught for an hour each day, five times a week.

Mathematics

Maths is taught daily. We follow the NZ curriculum milestones and use Maths No Problem resources to support our programme. Teachers deliberately plan acceleration and enrichment activities for our learners. We teach maths in a cycles of topics so learning is revisited regularly to build automaticity. Wherever possible maths is integrated across the curriculum to extend knowledge and make maths fun.

Te Reo Māori me ōnā tikanga

Te Reo Māori me ōna Tikanga is woven throughout our kura and supports our commitment to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Staff use te reo Māori daily, engage with tikanga respectfully, and help create an environment where Māori learners can see themselves, their language, culture, and identity valued and celebrated.

Kapa haka is an integral part of our kura, with students from across the school choosing to opt in and attend weekly practices every Friday. To support their learning, our junior students participate in separate practice sessions as a syndicate. These regular practices help students build confidence, learn waiata and haka, and strengthen their connection to their culture and identity. There are also ongoing opportunities for students to perform outside of school and represent our kura in regional competitions.