Keep Learning Relevant: Guest Contributor - Simon McAtamney

Simon McAtamney
Dec 15, 2025
5 min read

Updated: Dec 19, 2025

Building Newlands Intermediate's Ngā Pou Framework

Introduction by Marianne:

In 2016, I left a 25-year career in the United States to teach in New Zealand. I came because I'd discovered the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) three years earlier and recognised something I'd been working toward my whole career; a framework that trusted teachers and students to design learning together, grounded in key competencies rather than content transmission.

In 2017, Newlands Intermediate hired me to build their digital design programme. When I was given the brief to fill students with awe and wonder, I knew I had truly found a school where I could observe the NZC in action. I keenly remember my interview with Deputy Principal, Simon McAtamney, as he shared what the school had already accomplished and laid out aspirations for their next steps. I was thrilled at the prospect of not only observing the process, but having the opportunity to participate as well.

One of the initiatives was to engage community voice and collectively design a Ngā Pou framework to define our pedagogy moving forward. When I asked Simon to explain ngā pou, he grabbed a whiteboard marker and quickly sketched the structure of a Māori marae. The four pillars are foundational to building a strong structure that reflects the culture and needs of the community. It was then I fully understood, we were not going to import off-the-shelf pedagogy to fit our local needs, we were actually going to build it, from the ground up, as a community. This was the real deal! This is what I came to New Zealand to find.

When I left Newlands Intermediate to focus on my work in Generative AI, I asked Simon to write a letter of recommendation focused on the work we did to keep learning relevant. What Simon wrote was so much more. It was a durable record of the NZ Curriculum and the Te Mātaiaho Curriculum Refresh in action. It is the story of how our school community worked together to design pedagogy that would ground students in their tūrangawaewae (place to stand) and the key competencies to keep learning and adapting when the world around them shifts.

With his permission, here is Simon's letter posted in its entirety.

Ngā mihi nui ki a koe,

My Name is Simon McAtamney, and I am a Deputy Principal of Newlands Intermediate School. An exclusively Year 7-8 (10-12 year olds) school in New Zealand's Capital city, Wellington.

It has truly been an honour to join Marianne in this vital mahi (work), leveraging her deep insights and pedagogical philosophy to co-create a curriculum framework that is not just responsive but truly transformative for our Newlands Intermediate School rangatahi.

Marianne has led us on a powerful journey, understanding how we can keep learning relevant in a world changing faster than humans can adapt, and how AI, untamed as it is, forces us to rethink the very purpose of education.

At Newlands Intermediate, our vision, co-constructed with students, staff, and whānau, now speaks volumes about our aspirations for our learners. Together, we have created the beginnings of a curriculum that raises engagement and achievement, particularly for priority learners, cultivates safe and inclusive environments, builds strong community partnerships, and fosters professional learning.

Crucially, our Ngā Pou framework, rich with concepts like Rangatahi (Identity, Purpose, Decision Making, Capability, Hauora, Brave) and Ako (Responsibility, Te Ao Māori, Learning, Critical Thinking, Curiosity, Key Competencies, Agency, Kaitiaki, Whanaungatanga), provides an exceptional foundation for a student centric future-focused curriculum. It's a living document that students are actively involved in defining. Our Pou now guide our school's strategic plan.

Ako- Orititanga (equity) and Teacher Capability

Rangatahi- Hauora (wellbeing) and Identity

Kaitiaki- Ethical Citizenship and Deep Contextual Learning

Igniting the Spark for a Co-Evolving Future

Our core "why" for designing this curriculum for NIS is deeply rooted in Marianne’s observation that the traditional, "predictive education" model is no longer viable. We cannot possibly predict all the knowledge and skills our students will need for their futures. Instead, our purpose must shift to cultivating co-evolving learners – young people (and educators) who are adept at learning how to learn as conditions constantly change.

Our Curriculum is about empowering students not just to navigate but to actively shape their world, fostering a deep sense of self-awareness, agency, and skeptical curiosity.

All this Mahi aligns profoundly with the refreshed New Zealand Curriculum, Te Mātaiaho, which calls for an inclusive, equitable, and connected learning system that fosters a sense of belonging, values diverse identities, and recognises multiple pathways to success. It demands leadership that is "courageous, resilient, and productively disruptive", embracing the local, authentic, and culturally sustaining pedagogies framed by te ao Māori concepts.

Our curriculum design foundation:

• Holistic, Agentic Learners: Students who are not just "assessment-capable" in the traditional sense, but "assessment-capable" in terms of self-knowledge and agency, understanding their learning journey and owning their growth.

• Adaptability & Resilience: Equipping students with the qualities of attention, emotional reactivity, thought, imagination, reflection, and self-awareness to embrace uncertainty with robust self-confidence.

• Cultural Competence & Belonging: Ensuring learning experiences reflect local tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and te ao Māori, fostering a strong sense of identity and belonging for all ākonga.

• Skeptical Curiosity & Critical Thinking: Developing the ability to question, probe, and iterate with purpose, especially in the age of AI. This moves beyond surface-level engagement to deeper, critical engagement with information.

• Collaborative Expertise: Preparing students to work effectively with others, including AI, contributing to collective problem-solving and innovation.

Marianne has been able to inspire teachers with her expertise, bringing them on a journey of self-reflection and exposing them to the opportunities our curriculum of “awe and wonder” creates. She has enabled teachers to see themselves as integral parts of the process and honours their input by working closely with them to improve practice and develop their own teaching philosophies further.

It has been a privilege to work alongside Marianne in this mahi.

Nga Mihi Nui

Simon McAtamney

Collaborating with Simon and the Newlands Intermediate community to do this work has been one of the greatest highlights of an extraordinary journey to figure out how to keep learning relevant. The world will continue to shift at ever-increasing speed. It is our responsibility to make sure our students are prepared to cope with that kind of change and, more importantly, grow with it. ~Marianne