Strengthen Intentional Teaching – Curriculum Planning & Evaluation Exemplar (Babies)

Two of the most common Education Review Office improvement actions are:

• Improve planning and assessment so children’s learning progress over time is clearly shown in relation to Te Whāriki outcomes.

• Strengthen intentional teaching and evaluation practices so teachers can clearly show how their teaching supports children’s learning and progress.

One of the simplest ways to address these areas is to ensure you have a clear and consistent approach to children’s individual planning.  This authentic, editable, Excel Curriculum Planning & Evaluation Exemplar (9-12 months) has been designed to show exactly what this can look like in practice within a real early childhood setting.

A simple monthly curriculum plan following a 9 month old baby for three months.  Two formats included, one suitable for Storypark and the other suitable for Educa — shows what intentional teaching strategies look like in practice and how to carry out quality evaluation.

One of the most common improvement recommendations following ERO visits is to strengthen

Aligned to Regulation 43

This exemplar supports services to meet Regulation 43, which requires services to plan, implement, and evaluate a curriculum that enhances children’s learning and development.

It clearly demonstrates:

• how learning is planned intentionally
• how teaching is implemented and adapted
• how learning is evaluated over time

This exemplar shows exactly how to plan, assess, and evaluate learning over a monthly cycle — in a way that is simple, manageable, and aligned with current expectations, including Regulation 43 (Curriculum Standard).

What’s included:

• One fully completed monthly planning template
• Combines group planning and individual learning in one place
• Clear examples of Notice → Recognise → Respond → Evaluate
• Links to Te Whāriki learning outcomes
• Alignment with Kōwhiti Whakapae, including progress stages
• Embedded Te Reo Māori throughout

What makes this different:

• Shows what good evaluation of curriculum looks like
• Makes children’s progress over time clearly visible
• Demonstrates how to revisit learning across a month
• Connects teaching decisions directly to outcomes
• Keeps everything in one simple, streamlined template

Designed for real ECE settings

This is a practical, working example — not theory.

It shows how you can:

• Plan intentionally
• Follow learning across the month
• Evaluate what actually made a difference

All without adding extra workload.

Easy to use

• Use the template as-is or adapt it to your centre
• Can be easily set up in Educa or Storypark
• Supports consistency across your teaching team

Perfect for:

• Teachers unsure what good evaluation looks like
• Centre managers wanting a clear, consistent approach
• Services needing to show ongoing review and improvement

If you’ve been thinking:
“Are we evaluating properly?”
or
“What does this actually look like in practice?”

— this gives you a clear, simple answer.