Lesson 3: People and Routines That Help Our School Work
Children connect everyday needs with the roles, places and repeatable routines that make help easier to find.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga — Learning Intentions
WALT: I can match a school need with a helpful role and routine.
WILF: Given a familiar situation, I can show who or what can help and the first action a learner can take.
Kaupapa | Central idea
A school works through connected contributions, not one “most important” helper.
Roles make responsibilities clearer; routines help people know what happens next.
Te Whakatakotoranga | Run of show
- Do Now — What happens next? 5 min
- Act 1 — Role, person or place? 10 min
- Act 2 — Build a help chain 10 min
- Act 3 — Follow one real routine 10 min
- Synthesise — Find the missing link 7 min
- Exit — My first action 3 min
Tirohanga Whānui | What this lesson is doing
A “people who help us” lesson can become a memory quiz or a parade of job titles. This lesson teaches a more useful idea: a role carries responsibilities, a routine connects a need to help, and the learner has a first action they can rehearse. It uses only current, locally verified school information. Children are not asked to identify private family support, disclose why they need help, or rank staff by importance.
You’ll need
- Teacher-made role cards for people children genuinely encounter in your setting—for example kaiako, office staff, caretaker, librarian, learning assistant, tumuaki or playground duty teacher. Use the titles your school uses.
- Four need cards: I am hurt or unwell, I cannot find where to go, I need a learning tool, I have a problem with someone.
- A simple map or supervised walking route. Confirm current procedures with school leadership before the lesson.
Non-negotiable local check
Replace every sample pathway with your school’s actual process, including urgent help and safeguarding. Never tell children to search the site alone. If a child discloses harm or danger, stop the activity and follow school procedure.
Do Now — What happens next? 5 min
What it is: Noticing that a routine is a remembered sequence, not merely a rule.
Run it
- Pause a routine (5 min): Begin one familiar class routine—returning a book, choosing a learning station or preparing for kai—then pause after the first action. Children show or say what happens next. Ask, “How did you know?” Name the cues, roles and repeated actions that make the routine predictable.
Act 1 — Role, person or place? 10 min
What it is: Separating the job a role does from one individual’s name or status.
Run it
- Meet the roles (6 min): Show one card at a time. Ask: “What responsibility might travel with this role? When might this person work with another role?” Correct guesses with current local information. Include children’s own responsibilities without presenting them as unpaid adult work.
- Change the person (4 min): Cover any name or photo and leave the role label. Ask whether the responsibility still needs doing if a different person is present. Explain that knowing the role helps when names or timetables change.
Act 2 — Build a help chain 10 min
What it is: Connecting a situation to a safe first action and the school’s next step.
Run it
- Model one chain (3 min): Lay out four boxes: need → my first action → role or place → what happens next. Complete one using your school’s verified process.
- Build and check (7 min): Groups choose a need card and arrange role/place cards into a possible chain. Ask, “Could a new learner follow this? Is the first action safe? What if that person is away?” Add an alternative route where school policy provides one.
Act 3 — Follow one real routine 10 min
What it is: Testing the map against the actual school environment.
Run it
- Supervised walk or photo sequence (7 min): As one class, follow a single routine such as returning a library item or seeking a replacement pencil. Stop at each cue and ask children to predict the next action. Use a photo sequence instead if movement, weather, access or school operations make a walk unsuitable.
- Revise (3 min): Compare the real sequence with the class chain. Move, remove or add a card. This revision is the learning: systems are clearer when tested by the people using them.
Synthesise — Find the missing link 7 min
What it is: Diagnosing why an apparently sensible school process might still fail.
Run it
- Spot and repair (7 min): Remove one element from a help chain: the cue, the learner’s first action, the role or the next step. Children identify what is missing and explain or demonstrate the problem it causes. Invite more than one repair; the teacher confirms which matches current school practice.
Exit — My first action 3 min
What it is: Rehearsing one action rather than testing a list of staff names.
Run it
- Choose a card (3 min): Present one familiar situation. Children point, arrange a card, draw or say the first safe action. If answers differ, check the local routine together instead of marking an unsupported guess wrong.
Taku Ara Tautoko | My help pathway
Ingoa / Name: ____________________ Akomanga / Class: ____________________
Use a role or place rather than private contact details.
Ngā Huarahi Ako | Differentiation
Tautoko / Support
- Use actual objects and photos, one need card at a time, and a two-step now/next sequence.
- Pre-walk the route with children who benefit from predictability; provide a seated photo-sequence option for everyone.
Toitoi / Extension
- Design an alternative pathway for when the first role is unavailable, then test whether a new learner could understand it without insider knowledge.
Te reo Māori
- Kupu in context: tūranga (role or position), mahi (work or task), ara (pathway), āwhina (help).
Mātauranga Māori | Roles can be reciprocal
Ako unsettles a rigid picture in which knowledge and help always travel from the highest-status adult to the child. A learner may notice, teach, remind or care; an adult also listens and learns. Do not use this idea to blur adult safeguarding duties or transfer adult work to children. Ask local leaders and whānau how roles, names and protocols should be represented in your kura.
Hononga Marautanga | Curriculum
Te Mātaiaho (2025) · Social Sciences · Phase 1 · statement id 28224Group roles (e.g. school principal), rules, and routines are important for organisation and to help people work well together.
Children build and physically test the links between a need, a learner action, a role and a routine. Removing one link makes the organising function visible; revising the chain shows that routines must work for the people expected to use them.
Sources and checking
- Curriculum quotation: statement 28224 is pasted byte-faithfully from the canonical active curriculum corpus.
- School information: every role, route and emergency action must be checked against current local policy before teaching.
- Privacy: learner records use roles and places, not staff contact details or private reasons for seeking help.