Curriculum Overview
A balanced school programme
The present school Board of Trustees and the staff of the school have as their main focus, to “inspire and challenge” children to succeed in a broad and rich school curriculum.
Our Learning at Fernside School
At Fernside School, we’re excited to be embracing the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum. Our core belief is in doing the basics brilliantly, ensuring every student develops a strong foundation in the essential skills for learning. This focus on mastering the fundamentals is combined with rich, engaging, and future-focused experiences designed to foster a lifelong love of learning.
Building Strong Foundations in Literacy 📚
We’re committed to giving every child the best possible start in their literacy journey. That’s why we have adopted the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA). This structured literacy programme provides a systematic and explicit way of teaching reading, writing, and spelling. By focusing on the sounds of our language (phonics) and building knowledge step-by-step, BSLA ensures all our junior students develop the core skills needed to become accurate, fluent, and confident readers and writers.
Developing Confident Mathematicians 🧠
In mathematics, our teaching is heavily influenced by the work of leading maths expert Rob Proffitt-White. This approach moves beyond simply memorising facts and procedures to developing deep conceptual understanding. We focus on teaching students to think like mathematicians by exploring problems, reasoning, and discussing their strategies. This helps build a positive mindset towards maths, empowering our learners to tackle complex challenges with confidence and creativity.
Nurturing a Well-Rounded Learner
We believe in educating the whole child, providing a wide range of opportunities for students to discover their passions and talents.
Challenge and Extension for Senior Learners: New in 2025, we have introduced a specialised extension programme for our senior children. This initiative is designed to challenge and stretch our capable learners, providing opportunities for deeper inquiry and complex problem-solving. Developing our extension provision is an area of key focus for us going forward.
Active Bodies, Active Minds: We are proud to have a specialised Physical Education teacher leading our PE and sports programmes. This ensures all students benefit from high-quality instruction, developing their physical skills, coordination, and a love for being active.
Caring for our Whenua 🌱: Fernside is a proud Enviroschool. This is a commitment woven into our school culture, empowering our students to design and lead sustainability projects. Through hands-on learning in our gardens, recycling systems, and local environment, students learn to be kaitiaki (guardians) of our planet.
The Arts and Creativity: We foster creative expression and offer opportunities for private music tuition on-site during school hours. These parent-funded lessons allow students to learn a range of instruments from skilled tutors.
By combining a strong academic core with rich learning experiences, we are dedicated to nurturing curious, capable, and well-prepared learners at Fernside School.