OUR BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING
We believe that learners engage best when learning is Meaningful, Authentic, Personalised and Student-Directed (MAPS©).
Our beliefs about learning are summarised below.
Mā te kimi ka kite, Mā te kite ka mōhio, Mā te mōhio ka mārama
Seek and discover. Discover and know. Know and become enlightened.
LIGER LEARNING© MODEL
At the core of our model are learners. They actively engage in the Liger Learning© Model which comprises Explorations, Expertise, Essentials, and Extensions. Through this they develop leadership skills and the ability to create impact in their own lives, in their community and in the world around them.
Through Liger Learning©, we give life to the New Zealand Curriculum through our own approach which has been developed to have a distinctive focus on entrepreneurship, leadership and service based learning.
CURRICULUM DESIGN
Our curriculum is organised into four different types of learning experiences: Explorations, Expertise, Essentials and Extensions. This unique design integrates our leadership competencies, the learning areas, values and competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum.
We will deliver NCEA in years 11-13. Our curriculum is based on current, cutting-edge practices from around the world. Our curriculum responds to the needs of learners - we plan, teach, and assess with our learners.
EXPLORATIONS
EXPLORATIONS
Our experiential, project-based learning experiences focus on finding solutions to real world problems.
EXPERTISE
EXPERTISE
Our learning experiences are designed to provide deeper knowledge or expertise in areas of interest or excellence. These experiences are also utilised to develop skills necessary for current or upcoming curriculum.
EXTENSIONS
EXTENSIONS
Extensions are extended learning beyond the regular school day to develop well-rounded, healthy, and creative individuals.
These activities take place throughout the community including existing programs, clubs and organisations. This provides an opportunity for students to interact, compete and grow in enjoyable, safe and nurturing environments.
Liger Leadership Academy offers many activities to engage our learners in as many ways as possible. Learners must participate in a minimum of two Extensions per week – one of which must be physical.
We offer a wide range of Extensions throughout the year, which could include soccer, Model United Nations, netball, swimming, dance, road hockey, photography, tag rugby, yoga, art, karate, debate, drama, chess club, and tennis.
ESSENTIALS
ESSENTIALS
While we are not strictly a STEM school, we place a strong emphasis on the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects in our curriculum. Further, we recognise the crucial role that creativity plays in achieving our learning outcomes. To that end, the arts and creative activities are a key part of our curriculum.
LIGER LEADERSHIP SKILLS
Our leadership competencies provide a major focus of the curriculum and are a core part of our mission to develop socially conscious, entrepreneurial leaders. The focus on these recognises that the skills needed by today’s young adults are not only the traditional skills commonly taught today, but are also the non-academic skills critically needed for success in their future.
Inspired by our own research and a study done by the Harvard Business School, we have developed a list of 12 leadership characteristics. Students are evaluated on these skills throughout the year. We will also work with Iwi to explore how leadership is recognised in Te Ao Māori.
Our leadership competencies are:
Identification of Opportunities
Ability to identify appropriate opportunities and, while being ethical and competitive, take advantage of these situations as and when they arise.
Vision and Influence
Ability to create and implement a vision using strategic thinking based on evidence, and knowing and understanding the audience to support decisions.
Management of Operations
Ability to manage operations and finance by successfully executing the ongoing operations of a project, organisation or business.
Assembling and Motivating a Team
Ability to positively influence all stakeholders, to take other perspectives into account, and to motivate the team to work together to develop strategies to implement a vision or plan.
Comfort with Uncertainty
Ability to move forward in the face of uncertain and ambiguous circumstances. Working out of one’s comfort zone to do something bold and taking well-informed chances while understanding the relationship between risk and reward.
Building Networks
Ability to build successful networks by making contact and exchanging information with other people, groups, and institutions to develop mutually beneficial relationships.
Self-Awareness
Ability to be self-aware by independently gathering and processing information from the environment to honestly notice and make decisions about one’s feelings, physical sensations, reactions, habits, behaviours, and thoughts.
Problem Solving
Ability to solve a problem by identifying and defining a challenge or need and creating a plan to propose or achieve a solution.
Collaboration
Ability to work as a team to discuss, set goals, and complete tasks to produce results around a common goal.
Dot Connector
Ability to find relationships between everyday interactions, ideas and sometimes unrelated or unknown things in a quickly changing landscape to draw logical conclusions.
Communications
The ability to effectively convey ideas and emotions in a way that other people understand through reading, writing, listening and speaking.
Impact
Ability to be effective and positively create impact beyond the student to affect change in learners’ community, nation, or the world.
