Our AKO / Learning

We are a full primary school catering for students from Year 0 to Year 8. We provide a well balanced curriculum to meet the social, emotional, academic and physical needs of our students. We have approximately 217 students across 10 learning spaces.

We have developed a local curriculum to reflect the unique Central Otago life we all love, and learn in. 

Our local curriculum is the way that we bring The New Zealand Curriculum to life at our school. We aim to:

We use an NPDL (New Pedagogies for Deep Learning) framework to design rich learning opportunities for our students. 

At Alexandra Primary School we strive to be “activators of learning who design learning experiences that build on learners’ strengths and needs, create new knowledge using real-life problem solving and help all students identify their talents, purpose and passion.”

                                                      New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning 2018

Last year (2022) we began using the Te Ara Ako Innovation framework to plan and implement our inquiry learning. We have been working with Lauren Pugh from Education Perfect during 2022 and 2023 to align Te Ara Ako with NPDL.

Digital Technologies

It is our desire to strengthen our capabilities in delivering quality learning opportunities for computational thinking and designing and developing digital outcomes, which are part of the Technology Curriculum. This is a requirement of the Ministry of Education. 

“The digital curriculum is about teaching children how to design their own digital solutions and become creators of, not just users of, digital technologies, to prepare them for the modern workforce."

Chris Hipkins, 2018

The Dunstan Kāhui Ako (our Community of Learning for local schools) has prioritised Digital Technologies as an area of focus.

At APS we use our devices (Chromebooks, iPads and laptops) as a learning tool. 

Feedback from a parent information sessions on what learning at APS looks like:

The information session was helpful to understand the progression of technology use in the school. It was clear that it is one tool in the tool box to extend understanding of a subject matter, rather than a replacement of traditional teaching tools. It was also comforting to hear about the cyber safety programme being rolled out over the upcoming year.”


“It was great seeing the digital learning skills for all levels and the opportunities that are available for students at APS. It makes learning interesting and varied.”


“It was great to better understand how devices were being used in the different hubs to eventually prepare learners for how devices are used at high school. I appreciate the options for students to choose how they want to use (or not use) a device, but also there are many times in which devices aren't an option to better balance the amount of screen time for our learners."

If you are interested in finding out more information, please see the slideshow below or speak with Rachel O'Connell or Kylie Nixon. 

Learning in a digital classroom at APS 2021