Supervisors

With your help, kaiako will set learning goals that reflects your ākonga interests and abilities, as well as your whānau lifestyle, values and beliefs. The learning goals may expand on your ākonga current interests or stimulate a new area of learning. Your feedback about what your ākonga says and does, and their challenges and progress will help your kaiako choose learning goals and materials.

You and your ākonga will use a secure online learning space to access their learning resources and connect with kaiako. Online learning uses a mix of online modules and activities. You and your ākonga will use technology to explore their world. This takes place alongside opportunities to engage in online and face to face advisories.

If your child has special teaching needs, their programme will be developed in consultation with you and others who are involved in supporting your child’s development and well-being.

We’ve called our online learning space My Te Kura. You and your ākonga will be accessing online learning resources in the My Early Childhood course. ākonga will get to listen, read and explore new activities throughout the year.

Kaiako will be in touch to talk about how online learning can be used as part of your child’s programme of learning along with manipulative materials and activities.

You’ll get an automated email to let you know when your child has been enrolled in their course. You’ll learn more about My Te Kura in Get Exploring.

Find out more about online learning.

If you are a New Zealand based whānau you will receive a resource box on enrolment with supplementary boxes to continue your learning termly.

The equipment required for each module will be identified where required.

There will be opportunities to meet with kaiako and classmates using My Te Kura virtual classroom sessions. Where possible, we hold day events throughout the country that offer you and your child a chance to meet Te Kura teachers and the other families who live in your area.

Because children learn through practice and repetition, learning materials should be available for them to use regularly.

Find some time to share with your child every day.

This can involve the whole whānau. Use the time to:

• read stories together
• listen to music
• play games
• explore your home environment
• watch and encourage your child to paint, draw or work on a puzzle.

Your child will also benefit from having time and support to use the learning materials independently; for example, looking at books or doing a puzzle. They will still need you to notice and encourage them in what they are doing.

Because children learn through practice and repetition, learning materials should be available for them to use regularly.

We are here to support your ākonga learning and encourage regular contact through our online learning environment My Te Kura or by email and phone.

Feedback is essential to ensure we work together to extend your ākonga programme of learning. We will support you to help your ākonga learn online and encourage you to login regularly to stay up to date with new activities and important news.

A suitable device for studying is one that enables you to:

• access the internet and My Te Kura
• make audio and video recordings (free software is available online)
• whānau may also create and edit documents to support your child’s learning.

The best options are a laptop or desktop computer, netbook, or tablet PC (also known as a Smart PC) with a hard disk drive of more than 80GB and memory of more than 4GB, as these offer a greater range of functionality than most standard tablets or iPads.

The benefit of a portable device is that students and whānau can learn on the go i.e. take photos of students engaging in learning activities, access My Te Kura and use apps that support learning.

Every child learning online in your home needs a broadband internet connection (dial-up internet is not suitable) and at least 30GB of data per month.

My Te Kura provides a lot of the software and tools your child needs to learn online, along with instructions on how to use them. Other free software and online tools they’ll need include:

• digital camera or mobile phone with camera
• internet browser - we recommend Google Chrome
• headset with microphone or inbuilt computer microphone
• word processing software – you can download Microsoft Office free of charge
• anti-virus software

Links to these and other websites for downloading recommended software are available in My Te Kura.

There are some items that would be useful for your child to have:

• access to a printer and scanner
• graphics, image editing or drawing software
• headset with microphone or inbuilt computer microphone
• PDF-editing software – there are different options available which enable whānau to write directly into PDF files, save work and upload it to My Te Kura to share.