Rotorua Museum education programme looks forward to supporting new curriculum requirements

Education co-ordinator Rebecca Moore taking one of the classes this year. Photo / Supplied

Rotorua Museum’s education lead/kaiurungi mātauranga Dominique Chandler says the museum is in the perfect position to support local schools with the new curriculum requirements.

The museum’s Enriching Local Curriculums (ELC) Education Programme has been running for more than two decades.

From next year, New Zealand’s histories curriculum will become compulsory, ensuring all rangatahi are taught about New Zealand’s past.

With a broad selection of Rotorua-focused programmes for Year 1-13 students, the education team at Rotorua Museum Te Whare Taonga o Te Arawa anticipates the curriculum change will boost registrations from local schools, on top of the thousands of rangatahi already reached every year.

Dominique says: “We design programmes that will give students a deeper insight into our local people, environment, and history; however, we also tailor programmes to individual schools to ensure we add value where it’s needed.

“This is how we created one of our most popular programmes – Ngā Kōrero o Te Kura. It started as a request by one school to learn about their own history and that of the surrounding area. The idea was so well received that we have since personalised it to several other schools in our city.

“It’s this flexibility, as well as our wealth of knowledge and resources, that has helped the museum’s education programmes remain relevant and sought after for more than 20 years.

“On top of this, our free bus service, made possible by the generous support of the Ngāti Whakaue Education Endowment Trust board, and minimal resource fees, ensure all local school children have barrier-free access to our programmes.”

A former local teacher, Dominique has seen first hand the positive impact the museum’s education programmes have on students.

“These programmes give rangatahi a chance to learn in different environments, hands on and with unique resources that schools find challenging to provide.

“You often hear the students talking among themselves during and after the programmes, and it’s clear a new fascination is sparked in them.”

The Rotorua Museum ELC Education Programme — formerly Learning Experiences Outside the Classroom — has been a valued asset to the Rotorua school community since 1998, and will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year.

In the face of recent challenges, including the closure of the physical museum building and two years of Covid-related restrictions, the education team has continued to innovate and adapt, finding new ways to connect local rangatahi to the city’s taonga.

This has included carefully curating new, multi-sensory programmes that can be delivered outside the museum’s walls and school tours of the offsite storage facility.

“Whether we’re teaching a group of five-year-olds how to create their own marbling artwork, inspired by local artist Kylie Tiuka’s work, or taking Year 13 geography students through Rotorua’s tourism history, the museum continues to enrich the learning of new generations of local rangatahi,” Dominique says.

Sunset Primary School is just one of the local schools that utilise the museum’s education programmes, and principal Eden Chapman says most classes take part in at least one session every year.

“The lessons the museum provide offer a point of difference for the tamariki and are designed to fit in with what we are doing in the classroom.

“This helps to fire the tamariki up about a particular topic we’re teaching and adds that extra spark to what is already a strong local school curriculum.

“The museum’s education team has done a fantastic job of continuing these programmes while the building has been closed, however, we are all eagerly awaiting the museum reopening so our tamariki can once again learn within its walls.”

— Supplied content