Understanding the NZ Primary Curriculum. What Your Child Is Learning in School
You ask what your child learned at school today and they say “Ummm… I forgot.” Sound familiar?
For many parents, trying to understand what’s actually happening in the classroom feels like trying to follow a recipe with half the ingredients missing. You care deeply about your child’s learning, but you’re not handed a clear guide to what’s being taught or how. And when curriculum documents are full of unfamiliar language, it can feel easier to back away quietly than to try and decode it all.
So let’s change that. This guide is designed to give you a simple, parent-friendly introduction to the New Zealand Curriculum and what your tamariki are likely learning in primary school.
What Is the New Zealand Curriculum?
The New Zealand Curriculum is the national teaching framework used in most state and state-integrated schools. It outlines what schools are expected to teach and the key competencies and values learners should develop across their schooling journey.
It is split into eight learning areas:
English
The Arts
Health and Physical Education
Learning Languages
Mathematics and Statistics
Science
Social Sciences
Technology
At primary school, children explore all areas of the curriculum through rich, connected learning experiences. Literacy and maths provide important tools that help them express ideas, understand information, and engage more deeply with every subject. Alongside this, play, creativity, and collaboration help build the confidence, curiosity, and social skills that set children up for lifelong learning.
Curriculum Levels have gone in the new curriculum. What's there instead?
In the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, the traditional "levels" have been removed. Instead of working within broad levels across two or more years, each year level now has its own clear set of learning statements.
That means teachers focus on what students in a specific year—like Year 3—need to be learning this year, while still adapting their teaching to support individual needs. The goal is to give every child access to the full learning content for their year level, with flexibility to revisit or extend as needed.
What Are They Learning in Literacy and Maths?
These two areas are often where parents feel most in the dark. Let’s break them down.
Literacy
At primary level, literacy covers reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing. In a given year, your child might be learning to:
Read and understand different types of texts
Use punctuation and grammar in their writing
Express ideas clearly in writing and speech
Build vocabulary and spelling knowledge
Teachers will use a mix of guided reading, writing workshops, discussions and independent tasks to develop these skills. The reading books may feel “easy” to you but often serve a specific purpose for decoding or comprehension practice.
Maths
Maths in the New Zealand Curriculum includes number knowledge and strategies, measurement, geometry, algebra, and statistics.
Within a single school year, children might be:
Learning to add and subtract using place value knowledge
Beginning to understand multiplication and division
Exploring fractions such as halves, quarters, and thirds
Measuring objects and solving everyday problems using time or money
Identifying patterns, sorting information, or working with shapes
Maths teaching now focuses on building understanding rather than just memorising steps. That’s why your child might use a method that seems unfamiliar—like drawing diagrams or breaking numbers into parts—and it can still be a completely valid way to solve the problem.
Why You Don’t Always Get a Straight Answer
When your child says “I forgot,” they probably didn’t. They might just not have the words yet to explain what they did, or they may not have fully grasped the learning goal behind the activity.
Sometimes school days feel like a blur to kids, full of transitions, social moments and movement. Their focus might be on the story a friend told them or the funny part of assembly rather than the details of a maths strategy. That’s normal.
How Can Parents Stay in the Loop?
Here are a few small but powerful ways to feel more connected:
Ask differently: Instead of “What did you learn?” try “What did you read today?” or “Did anything feel tricky?”
Read the newsletters: They often include curriculum updates and topics being explored - use these topics to ask specific questions that might remind your child what they did at school.
Chat to the teacher: At pick up ask "Good day at school today?" Or "What did Room 7 get up to today". Those small insights will give you a foundation for what questions to ask your child later.
Use tools like ours: At The Learning Project, we create courses and content that explain what kids are learning and how to help in a fun way for busy parents
You’re Already Doing More Than You Know
Learning happens at home all the time. When you read a recipe, build a Lego set, or talk about money at the supermarket, your child is learning. You don’t need to become a teacher to support your child. You just need to feel a little more informed, and a little more confident.
That’s where we come in.
Our parent-focused explainer courses are launching soon, starting with Year 3 maths. Follow us for updates and get tools that make helping at home feel simpler and more connected.
