Te mahi kauawhi

Inclusive practice

Resources and ideas to create an environment that celebrates the diversity of each child, whanau, and kaiako.

A child is smiling while looking at the camera.

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi engari he toa takitini.

I come not with my own strengths but bring with me the gifts, talents and strengths of my family, tribe, and ancestors.

Key ideas

In Māori tradition, children are seen to be inherently competent, capable and rich, complete and gifted, no matter what their age or ability. Descended from lines that stretch back to the beginning of time, they are important living links between past, present, and future and a reflection of their ancestors. These ideas are fundamental to how Māori understand teaching and learning.

Te Whāriki acknowledges that all children have rights to protection and promotion of their health and wellbeing, to equitable access to learning opportunities, to recognition of their language, culture, and identity, and increasingly, to agency in their own lives. These rights align closely with the concept of mana.

Te Whāriki is an inclusive curriculum – a curriculum for all children. Inclusion encompasses diverse family structures and values, socio-economic status, religion, refugee, migrant and minority families, gender and ability, including disabled children and those with learning and health needs.

All children have the right to access the full depth and breadth of the curriculum

Inclusive practices for your setting:

Provide an environment that invites, acknowledges, and celebrates the diversity that each child and their whānau bring.
Partner with parents and whānau to create and nurture a community culture where all children belong and contribute, and are empowered to participate in meaningful play and learning with and alongside their peers.
Strengthen supports, actively identify and remove barriers, and respectfully challenge unhelpful beliefs.
Collaborate with parents and whānau so you know the children in your service well and understand how different children learn. This allows you to respond to each child’s diverse strengths and needs.
Plan flexible, tailored responses that best fit children’s needs, identity, and cultural beliefs. This will enhance participation, wellbeing, and learning.

Reflecting on Inclusive practice through Te Whāriki principles 
Implications for leadership
Connecting with learning support and other services
Useful resources

Whakamana | Empowerment

Recognising every child’s right to belong, contribute, and learn is central to inclusion. Inclusive practice empowers all children to access the full depth and breadth of the curriculum within their early childhood service.

How are all children provided with opportunities to access the full breadth and depth of your curriculum?
How well do you identify, prioritise, and support children who have diverse learning needs?

The provision of meaningful and relevant experiences supports every child to actively engage in all aspects of play and learning.

To what extent are disabled children and children who learn differently supported to be confident and capable learners with agency over their own learning?
How do you provide positive encouragement for children who find some situations and activities challenging?

Using te reo Māori and values from te ao Māori daily is vital to build a curriculum that reflects the partnerships inherent in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and ensure mokopuna Māori are empowered with a strong sense of belonging.

How are values from te ao Māori supported in your work with children?

Children that require flexible supports for learning are valued as equal contributors to the learning community. Their progress and achievements are visible alongside those of their peers in the service.

How visible are the learning, achievement, strengths, interests, progress, and next steps of disabled children and children with diverse learning needs?

Whānau tangata | Family and community

Children, families, whānau, and communities are diverse. Respecting all children and their whānau is fundamental to inclusion. Making connections and building relationships with parents and whānau is vital to supporting children's learning and development.

To what extent is everyone made to feel welcome and respected? How do you know?

Understanding the place of Mana Whenua in your local area, along with whānau links to wider Iwi Māori, will support the authentic inclusion of te reo Māori and te ao Māori values.

What could these values look like in your setting: Kotahitanga; Whakawhanaungatanga; Mana; Wananga; Manaakitanga; Ako?

Building strong relationships with parents and whānau who have a disabled child or a child with diverse learning needs is essential to their sense of belonging and inclusion. 

How well do kaiako engage with parents and whānau, including those with children who require additional support, about their child’s learning?

Kotahitanga | Holistic development

An inclusive curriculum positions children at the centre of an inclusive, holistic curriculum that provides equitable opportunities and access and celebrates diversity through the early learning setting’s curriculum.

In what ways does your service value, support, and celebrate difference?

Children learn and develop holistically, inclusive of cognitive (hinengaro), physical (tinana), emotional (whatumanawa), spiritual (wairua), and social and cultural dimensions. Kotahitanga also highlights the importance of children’s connections between children and their wider world, including Papatūānuku. 

How well do you respond to the diverse strengths and needs of children, whānau, and the education or community setting?
How do you use curriculum planning to support holistic development in your setting?

Ngā hononga | Relationships

Reciprocal, responsive, and respectful relationships with people, places, and things are significant in all children’s lives. Ngā hononga also reminds us that relationships between ourselves and the whenua are important in supporting children's wellbeing.

How can you support and promote belonging and positive connections with peers within the child’s learning community?

Inclusive practices identify and remove barriers so all children can learn through active participation in meaningful play experiences, daily routines, and interactions with others. Fostering positive relationships is essential to inclusion. Strong respectful relationships between and among kaiako, children, their whānau and relevant external support agencies (when required) support all children's learning and development. 

How visible are disabled children and children with diverse learning needs in our curriculum, including in our resources for play?
How do you tailor your language and actions to help all children feel like they belong and actively participate in their learning environment?
How inclusive is the service of children from diverse family types, including refugee, migrant, and minority families?
How inclusive is the service of children who are traumatised (victims of abuse, homelessness, etc)?

Successful inclusive practice relies on strong leadership. Leaders have overall responsibility to ensure all children can access the full depth and breadth of the early learning setting’s curriculum. A leader will demonstrate an inclusive attitude based on the belief that all children have rights to learn and develop with and alongside their peers.

Committed leaders build positive relationships with kaiako, children, parents, and whānau, including those with additional health, physical, emotional, social, cultural, and/or spiritual needs. 

Leaders need to communicate effectively with other kaiako, parents, whānau, and support agency partners and specialists to ensure they are providing a curriculum that supports the learning of all children. This means taking responsibility for joint planning for individual children, including processes to document their learning and development and systems for robust self-review and internal evaluation. The aim is to weave the plan into the service’s curriculum to make sure the environment, experiences, events, and excursions are accessible. 

Leaders are also expected to encourage reflective, responsive practices that protect and promote an inclusive whāriki for all children. 

Reflective questions for leaders

How do you ensure the curriculum in your setting supports children and their families to be active participants in their communities?
How well do your transition to school processes support children who require additional support to transition to school successfully?
How is assessment information and kaiako knowledge of all children used to plan and evaluate teaching and learning?
How do you encourage high expectations for all children’s learning, development, and relationships?
How have you integrated inclusive approaches into planning?

Ministry of Education learning support services (Early Intervention Services) work in collaboration with parents, whānau, and early learning kaiako to support children with diverse needs, including providing a wide range of tools and resources. 

Te Tūāpapa: A flexible, tailored model of support

Learning support services (Ministry of Education) utilise Te Tūāpapa, a robust evidence-informed framework for identifying learning supports that increase in intensity, depending on children’s needs and their learning contexts. 

Information and strengths about teaching and learning gathered collaboratively within Te Tūāpapa contributes to decision-making around supports that include:

Te Matua: strengthening inclusive environments, cultures and practices
Te Kāhui: focused approaches to enhance participation, learning and wellbeing
Te Arotahi: specific supports for unique need and contexts

Note that, as part of Te Tūāpapa these supports are integrated.

For an example of Te Tūāpapa in practice, read the story of practice: A partnership approach to providing learning supports.

Education Review Office (ERO)

Responding to diverse cultures research articles
These ERO resources explore what culturally responsive teaching looks like in practice and how schools and services can support good practice. The report ‘Good Practice in Home-based Early Childhood Services’ is particularly relevant for early learning.

Education for disabled learners in New Zealand
This ERO research looks at how well the education system is supporting disabled learners. It includes research about early childhood education and good practices guides for kaiako, parents, and whanau in early childhood education.

Ministry of Education

Early intervention service
This guidance provides early learning services, family, and whānau with information about the supports that are available for children who have additional learning needs. 

Te Tūāpapa o He Pikorua
Te Tūāpapa is a flexible, tailored model of support used by Ministry learning support practitioners. This model sits within He Pikorua which is the practice framework for Ministry and RTLB learning support practitioners

Inclusive education
Find out about inclusive education in New Zealand schools, including your school's legal obligations. Our resources can help your school or early learning service support students with diverse needs.

Inclusive Education Guides
The Inclusive Education Guides are kete (collections) of evidence-based inclusive strategies to support Year 1-13 teachers and school leaders. They bring together strategies, suggestions, and resources from Aotearoa and around the world. These have been curated by the Ministry of Education for the Aotearoa learning context.

Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia
Tau Mai Te Reo
Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia is the Māori Education Strategy, and Tau Mai Te Reo is the Māori Language in Education Strategy. Together, they outline the shifts needed in education for Māori to enjoy and achieve educational success as Māori, and growth in te reo Māori for both Māori and non-Māori learners.

Kei Tua o te Pae - Inclusive assessment
Kei Tua o te Pae - Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars are best practice guides published in the early 2000s by the Ministry of Education to help early learning kaiako to continue to improve the quality of their practice. Inclusive assessment | Te Kāhui Aromatawai, Book 9 of the series, focuses on inclusive assessment.

Much More than Words
Much More than Words is a Ministry of Education booklet that provides information about children’s communication development so you can think about how your child is talking and support them, using their skills and interests. Early childhood teachers, kaiako, whānau, health professionals and others will find it useful.

See Materials that come with this resource to download Much More then Words V2 (.pdf)

United Nations Conventions

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
New Zealand is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is an international treaty that articulates what is required to implement existing human rights as they relate to disabled people. The link above to the Office for Disability Issues contains different formats and translations available of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a comprehensive international human rights document on the rights of indigenous peoples that New Zealand is a signatory to. Te Puni Kōkiri is the lead government agency for developing a Declaration Plan in Aotearoa, and this link provides a suite of resources Te Puni Kōkiri has curated on the Declaration.

The Human Rights Commission has also produced a helpful guide, The Rights of Indigenous Peoples: What you need to know in both te reo Māori and English.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
he United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Children’s Convention) sets out the rights of all children, aged 0 to 18 years, and the responsibilities of governments to ensure those rights are respected. The New Zealand Government signed up to the Children’s Convention in 1993.

The Children’s Convention sets out a framework of rights based on what a child needs to survive, grow, participate, and reach their potential. Article 2 is about non-discrimination and being inclusive. Article 23 relates to children with disabilities. Articles 28 and 29 are about children’s rights to education, for example, all children’s rights to develop to their full potential. Article 30 is about indigenous children’s rights, and Article 31 relates to children’s rights to play.

Unicef has published a simplified version of the Children’s Convention
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner has produced its own summary.

Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE) – United Kingdom

Index for Inclusion: developing play, learning and participation in early years and childcare
The Index for Inclusion from the United Kingdom’s Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education is a detailed set of materials to help support early years and childcare settings to increase the participation of all children and young people in learning and play. First published in 2004, this is the updated 2018 version of the Index.

About this resource

This page provides resources and ideas to create an inclusive environment that celebrates the diversity of each child, whānau, and kaiako. Includes reflective questions, considerations for leadership, connections to the principles of Te Whāriki, and links to useful resources.