Horizon School

Horizon provides a welcoming and vibrant environment that develops young people holistically and ​academically to equip them for both now and the future that awaits them. We draw inspiration from our strong Christian background to help us provide an environment that nurtures a sense of identity and purpose in young people, equipping them to live life to the full. Located in coastal Snells Beach, with a rural outlook of the Mahurangi River, our students enjoy this spacious environment as they learn.

Horizon speaks of the journey we guide children on - the journey of learning, growth, and faith. It speaks of numerous possibilities spreading out before our students as they step into the world. It speaks of preparing students for a future not yet seen in its entirety, teaching them how to learn, and giving them the building blocks they will need to solve future challenges that are yet unknown.

Browse through our website to learn more, or better still, call in to visit us. We would love to be a part of your child's growth into the kind of person you will be both proud of and grateful for. We hope you come and join us either as a school family, or as a friend and supporter.

Our school mission of Loving Life, Living Faith and Looking Forward and our values are interwoven with the concepts and information investigated and skills developed in a normal school day.
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We focus on inspiring the learners to develop both a Love for Life and Loving Life throughout our learning programmes. We also seek to encourage in the children a Living Faith that this world is more than matter and that it is held together by an awesome God whose love draws us. Through our learning programmes we are actively Looking Forward, in order to best prepare our learners for their futures rather than our pasts, and to equip them to contribute in their world both now and in years to come.

Our curriculum is relevant to our learners, their prior learning and to the world in which they live. It is challenging to our learners as they apply the essential concepts and skills to real world situations. The content is interesting to students, but involves particular challenges to develop their thinking skills. When students successfully meet these challenges, their new learning has meaning and value in contexts beyond the curriculum unit or classroom setting.

Based upon age, prior learning, and the developmental differences among learners, teachers adjust the learning programmes and requirements. Our curriculum engages students in integrated and unifying learning experiences which reflects the inter-relationship of all areas of life and study. ​We connect learning to their previous experiences, to the past and the future, to their particular passions and interests, and to life outside of school.

​Connections within and across disciplines help us to develop concepts and skills in ways that address the complexity of real world needs, opportunities or problems, while still ensuring that the specific skills and content of each discipline is acively taught and assessed.

Our curriculum also provides ways of drawing connections from the curriculum that relate to wider life experiences in the community and help students fulfil their responsibilities in real life contexts. We believe that learning can happen anywhere!

​This also builds a cohesiveness to the school, enables shared planning and expertise, and opens up opportunities for the older students to work with younger ones.​Because the entire school is often studying the same broad concepts in a term, teachers work collaboratively to bring cohesiveness and unity in school and homework activities. This deepens the learning and builds a wonderful sense of community within the school.

At Horizon School, we are a community of learners, including adults, children and young people. We see openness to new learning as a prerequisite for all our teachers and actively foster and expect a disposition of inquiry. Feedback and collaborative inquiry is integral to our way of being as we seek to provide an enviornment in which children and young people are inspired and supported to become lifelong learners. Learning from others through models, scaffolds and exemplars is valued, and a willingness to fail and risk is central to the learning process for our community. ​​Critical, creative and reflective thinking skills are a priority as we seek to develop in children knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

As a Christian school, we recognise the different aspects of humanness, including physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual. Our learning programmes seek to develop learners in all these areas. We believe that the spiritual nature of people is important for whole integrated lives, and we are unashamedly inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus. We aim to inspire learners towards faith, while completely respecting that each individual has a choice.

We are strongly involved in the wider community and believe that our learning community provides a wonderful environment for children and young people to grow and become confident contributors with a sense of responsibility to care for our world!