Kei Tua o te Pae

Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars is a best-practice guide that will help teachers continue to improve the quality of their teaching.

The exemplars are a series of books that will help teachers to understand and strengthen children's learning. It also shows how children, parents and whānau can contribute to this assessment and ongoing learning.

We are making improvements to our download-to-print functionality. So if you want a printed copy there are PDF versions available at the bottom of the main cover page.

The quality of assessment in early childhood education – ERO(external link)

Kei tua o te pae – Beyond the horizon

This resource is titled Kei Tua o te Pae, a line from an oriori (lullaby) by Hirini Melbourne. There are a number of images in this oriori that can be applied to development, learning, and assessment for learning.

  • Continuity

    • The first relevant image is about continuity.

      Ka tō te marama e tiaho nei
      Ka hī ake ko te rā
      Kei tua o te pae

      When the translucent rays
      of the moon disappear,
      a new day dawns with the rising
      of the sun beyond the horizon.

      In an ever-changing world, we know that horizons of young children will expand and change in ways that cannot be foreseen. Children will travel beyond the current horizon, and early childhood education is part of that. It continues the shaping of a vision for children – that of their being “competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society” (Te Whāriki, page 9). Learning is a lifelong journey that will go beyond the current horizon. The details of the journey will change as the world changes, but this vision will remain the same.

      Te Whāriki

  • Engaging the body, mind, and spirit

    • The second image is about growth, development, and learning through the engagement of body, mind, and spirit.

      Tipu kē ake koe
      Me he horoeka
      Torotika ki te rā
      Whāia te māramatanga
      O te hinengaro
      O te wairua

      So too does the cycle of life continue.
      Grow up strong and gracious,
      just like the proud horoeka tree,
      confident and free.
      Seek out the secrets of the
      hidden well-spring of your mind
      and know the sounds and
      dreams of your spirit.

      This holistic view of growth reminds us that development and learning have affective, social, and motivational dimensions and that assessment does too.

  • Reciprocal relationships

    • The third image is about the reciprocal relationship between the child and their world.

      Kia puāwai koe ki te ao
      Ka kitea ō painga

      So you shall blossom into the world,
      and the world in turn is transformed.

      Children’s learning is embedded in their reciprocal relationships with the world, with people, places, and things. The world shapes their learning, and in turn, their learning shapes and changes the world.