While still a very young teacher, Helen Pearson, founding director and author of the Interact Curriculum, became the founding principal of KingsWay School in Orewa, New Zealand.
Through this experience, though it was quite overwhelming at times, God birthed in Helen a great enthusiasm for education that seeks to honour God, and inspire in students a joy in learning.
After leaving KingsWay School, Helen was asked to develop material to assist others to integrate Biblical faith and world view into a dynamic learning programme. In answer to this request, the week before her first child was born, Helen created a curriculum overview – a four year cycle – for KingsWay School, believing that it would one day be available for wider use.
Between 1991 and 2001, Helen gradually developed sixteen units of work, each suitable for one term’s work. She has also had five children! Her husband, Dean and her mother have been a wonderful support with the children during the times she has worked on curriculum development.
The Interact Curriculum is now in use in approximately one third of schools in the NZ Association of Christian Schools. A number of homeschoolers also use the curriculum.
In 2008, in response to the new NZ Curriculum and recent educational thinking, Helen began updating the previous Interact Curriculum manuals.
The Interact Curriculum is now being written by a team of educators, and frequent input and critique from educators, advisors, and experts in various educational fields (both Christian and secular) who have been so willing to invest time and advice into the curriculum as Helen has developed it.
