New Curriculum Leads on mental health and healthy relationships

Fri 26 Jun 2020

The Government has announced up to 40 new "Curriculum Leads." These roles will work directly with schools, kura, early learning services and kōhanga reo to support the teaching of mental health and healthy relationships.

Children-in-classroom

Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said:

“For too long, as identified in the last two ERO reports, a number of schools have struggled in this area of teaching. The Curriculum Leads, a new type of role based in regional Ministry of Education offices, will provide the specialist support that primary and secondary schools have been wanting and need in this area.”

Within each of the education regions, Curriculum Leads will be responsible for supporting schools, Boards of Trustees, teachers and kaiako to:

"undertake effective consultation with school communities to shape their localised Health and Physical Education/Hauora implementation
teach key concepts, ensure curriculum coverage and consistent implementation of the refreshed Sexuality Education Guidelines 2015 and Mental Health Education Guidelines, while maximising the primary prevention opportunities
engage quality external providers and resources, if appropriate, that complements and enhances teacher-led delivery"

The programme funding also provides for resources for parents and whānau that will support their understanding of the importance of teaching and learning about mental health and healthy relationships. This is to enable families to provide support to their children at home.

The new roles are funded from a $32.8 million programme that will be delivered over four years and are the first part of a comprehensive wellbeing support package for the entire education sector.

Tracey Martin commented “It’s predicted that COVID-19 will have long-lasting impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.”