Academic Curriculum
At Blockhouse Bay Intermediate, our academic curriculum is designed to give students the strong foundations and the confidence to take ownership of their learning.
We teach the New Zealand Curriculum through carefully sequenced programmes that build knowledge, skills, and understanding over time. Learning is explicit, structured and responsive. Students are taught at their year level, with support adjusted so that all learners can access rich learning.
Our aim is simple: students should know what they are learning, why they are learning it, how to be successful, and what their next step is.
How we teach
Across BHBI, teachers use a shared Common Practice Model. This brings together researched based approaches such as Visible Learning and the Science of Learning, along with High Impact Teaching Strategies ensuring all of our teachers have a consistent approach to their practice.
Lessons are designed to build on prior knowledge and give students multiple opportunities to practise and improve. Teachers use clear learning intentions and success criteria, explicit modelling, guided practice, independent practice, checking for understanding and reflection.
Knowledge Rich Learning
At BHBI, learning is connected. Literacy, science, Aotearoa New Zealand Histories, Health, Digital Technology, Values, and wider curriculum contexts are woven together so students build knowledge across subjects.
Each year level has key concepts and themes that guide learning. In Year 7, students explore ideas such as change, coming of age, identity, migration, science and the changing nature of matter and energy. In Year 8, students explore ideas such as truth, identity and belonging, justice and injustice, science, ethics, opportunities and inequities.
This approach helps students make meaningful connections between what they read, write, discuss, investigate and create.
Literacy
Literacy at BHBI is structured, explicit, and knowledge rich. Students receive dedicated reading and writing time each day, with a focus on developing the skills they need to read, write, speak and think with confidence.
Our literacy programme uses a structured literacy approach. This means key skills are taught deliberately and systematically, including oral language, spelling through Liz Keane’s ‘The Code’, handwriting, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, fluency, text structure, writing processes and comprehension. These foundations help students become more confident readers and writers.
At the same time, literacy at BHBI is about much more than isolated skills. Students engage with rich, challenging texts from Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. These texts are carefully selected to build knowledge, grow vocabulary, support deep comprehension, and expose students to important ideas, perspectives, and themes.
Reading and writing are closely connected. The texts students read, the vocabulary they explore and the ideas they discuss all help shape the writing they produce. Students are explicitly taught how sentences work, how punctuation and grammar create meaning, how words are built through spelling and morphology, and how to organise their ideas for different purposes and audiences.
Mathematics
Mathematics at BHBI is explicitly taught and reviewed every day through a structured, carefully sequenced programme. Students learn at their year level, with lessons designed to build understanding step by step.
Our classroom teachers use either Maths No Problem, or our own ‘BHBI Mathematics Programme’ to deliver all six strands of the mathematics curriculum throughout the year: number, algebra, measurement, geometry, statistics and probability.
Our mathematics teaching is based on the BHBI Common Practice Model. Concepts are first modelled clearly, often using concrete materials, visual representations or interactive tools. As students become more confident, they move towards more abstract mathematical thinking. Basic facts, written methods, problem solving, reasoning, and mathematical communication are all important parts of our programmes.
Our teachers plan and cater for all ability levels. They monitor, recognise, and respond within the lessons differentiating for those students who may require extra support, as well as for those who need to be extended.
Progressions and Visible Learning
Progressions are central to learning at BHBI. They show the knowledge, skills and understanding students are developing over time. Students use progressions to know where they are, what they are working towards, and what their next steps are.
Teachers use assessment information, classroom observations, student work, feedback, and progressions to respond to student needs. Students are supported to set goals, reflect on progress, and understand themselves as learners.
Our Digital Learner Pathway helps bring this together by showing goals, progressions, assessment information, evidence of learning, and wider school involvement in one place. This helps students and whānau see learning more clearly and celebrate growth over time.
Supporting and Extending Every Learner
Every learner is different. Some students require extra support, while others are ready for extension and enrichment. Many students need both at different points in their learning.
Our programmes are designed to identify what students know, what they need next, and how we can help them keep progressing. Teachers use flexible grouping, targeted workshops, challenge tasks, feedback, font loading, and follow up teaching to respond to student learning needs. We also have dedicated literacy support teachers to assist those who need it, including our English language learners.
For students ready to go further, extension opportunities are provided through classroom learning, academic challenges, problem solving, competitions, and special interest programmes.