Nau Mai! — Welcome to the 2026 Academic Year
The first week is about more than just timetables. It's about building a learning community, understanding our shared values, and building the routines students need for secondary learning. This pack helps teachers combine whakawhanaungatanga, digital readiness, and self-management so Year 9-10 learners start with strong relationships as well as clear systems.
At a Glance
- 🤝 Relationship Building
- 🛠️ Digital Readiness
- 📜 Tikanga & Guidelines
- 🎯 Self-Management
Essential First-Week Activities
1. Whakawhanaungatanga: The Identity Map
Beyond the "icebreaker" — building a deep understanding of who we are.
Students create a visual "Identity Map" that includes their turangawaewae, their interests, their cultural connections, and the strengths they bring to a new learning whānau. The goal is not performance, but making whakapapa and identity visible in the room from day one.
- Tool: Organic Mind Map Template
- Key Question: What do you want your teachers and peers to know about you that a computer doesn't?
2. Te Kete Ako Mastery: My First Entry
Onboarding students to their personal learning portfolio.
Get students logged in and familiar with the platform. Perform a "Kete Audit": find one resource, save it to their Kete, and write a one-sentence reflection about what kind of learner they want to be this year.
- Goal: Successfully navigate to the Portfolio and save an initial thought.
- Check: Can they see their "Saved Resources" in their dashboard?
3. Co-Constructing Tikanga
Creating a shared classroom treaty based on mutual respect.
Shift from "rules" to "tikanga" (protocols). What does respect, curiosity, and effort look like in this room, online, and when conflict appears? Make the discussion concrete enough that students can recognise the expectations in practice.
- Activity: Use the Ideation Grid to brainstorm "The Ideal Classroom".
- Final Output: A shared document signed by the whole whānau.
4. Timetable, Devices, and Help-Seeking Systems
Making secondary expectations explicit before mistakes pile up.
Walk students through how to read their timetable, where work will be posted, how to name digital files, and what to do when they miss instructions or feel stuck. The first week is the best time to normalise asking for support.
- Routine: Build a one-page checklist for what students do at the start and end of each day.
- Practice: Rehearse where to find notices, how to message a teacher appropriately, and which adults or tuakana can help when anxiety spikes.
📦 Printable Starter Resources
Student User Guide
How to use Te Kete Ako for your learning.
Intentions & Goals
A template for academic and personal growth.
Digital Tikanga Contract
Our commitment to respectful technology use.
Kaiako Planning Snapshot
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning Intentions
- Help students transition into secondary routines with clarity about people, spaces, systems, and expectations.
- Use whakawhanaungatanga, digital onboarding, and explicit planning tools to build a learning culture where students can participate confidently from the first week.
- Position identity, goals, and help-seeking as normal parts of academic readiness rather than waiting for students to struggle in silence.
Paearu Angitu — Success Criteria
- I can explain how our class tikanga supports safety, respect, and focused learning.
- I can use my timetable, digital tools, and planning routines to be ready for the school day.
- I can name one likely challenge in the first month and identify the support, strategy, or person that will help me respond well.
Teacher Planning Snapshot
- Year level: Years 9-10 | Duration: opening week with revisits in the first month as routines settle.
- Curriculum alignment: Te Mataiaho Phase 4 integration across key competencies, oral language, digital participation, and wellbeing. This starter pack prepares students to manage themselves, relate well to others, and contribute to a new class culture.
- Mātauranga Māori: Whakawhanaungatanga is core learning content here. Manaakitanga shapes how teachers welcome and respond to students, tikanga makes classroom expectations explicit, and whakapapa reminds students that identity, place, and whānau belong in secondary learning spaces too.
- Entry support: Model each routine step by step, use visible checklists, rehearse how to read the timetable, and pair students with a buddy or tuakana for the first digital and navigation tasks.
- On-level: Most students can co-construct class expectations, complete a first Kete entry, and reflect on their strengths and support needs with teacher circulation and frequent check-ins.
- Extension: Invite confident students to help lead orientation tasks, refine the class treaty language, or create a student guide for younger peers entering the school next year.
Inclusion and Accessibility
- ESOL / ELL: Pair every new routine with visuals, bilingual glossaries where possible, and oral rehearsal before expecting independent writing. Sentence stems help students explain needs and ask for help without whakamā.
- Accessibility: Offer printed and digital versions of timetables, checklists, and platform instructions. Keep key steps visible in the room and avoid relying on fast whole-class verbal processing alone.
- Neurodiverse learners: Students with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or transition anxiety benefit from predictable timing, advance warnings before movement, chunked tasks, and more than one way to show readiness or reflection.