Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 9 Class Photos
Year 9 Class Photos
English Language Learners
Integrated Studies
Year 9 Integrated Studies
This year as part of our new integrated approach to teaching and learning with our Year 9 students, teachers have paired up to teach new programmes that combine different curriculum areas.
The course that Nicole Huxtable and Rosanna Katene led looked to bring together Health Education and Mathematics. It has included looking at the rebuild of our new City Centre in Christchurch, as a result of the earthquake and evaluating the potential impact it has on the well-being of ourselves, others, and society. As well as looking at well-being, students have developed their understanding of perimeter, area and drawing to scale. On completion of the course students will assess how well the new city meets the well-being needs of our community and give their recommendations for improvements, as well as drawing an area from the city to scale.
With each of our classes this year we have gone on a day trip to the city together. While we have been in the city we have looked at The Bridge of Remembrance, Colombo Corner, The Youth Space, Margaret Mahy playground and TÅ«ranga library.
Forensic Investigation
One of the units of learning in our Year 9 Integrated Learning programme is 'forensic investigation' where students are able to combine aspects of the Science and English curriculum to set their minds to solving a crime. Through out the term, students learn observation skills, how to hunt through articles to find information, how to carry out a range of forensic testing on evidence from a crime scene and eventually identifying a suspect that they believe did it.
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They then compile all they have learned into a court presentation where they present their findings to a jury of their peers from another class, having learned some oration language skills along the way.
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Throughout the year the students have produced some amazing reports and presentations and have worked really well within teams to put all of the pieces together.
We asked Matai and Kordell what they thought of their experience with forensic investigation.
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What have you been learning in Integrated Studies this term?
We have been learning about crime solving, how to match up footprints, use ink pads to take fingerprints, looking at soil properties and how to test soil acidity to find matches with the evidence from the crime scene.
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What is the crime you have been solving?
Grand Theft Shakespeare - we are solving the case of Mr Edmunson’s framed picture of Shakespeare, a famous writer.
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What have you enjoyed learning about this term?
I like that we get to learn about detective stuff and when we learned about Sherlock Holmes. We work well in a team and it has been good to be able to work together. I really enjoyed looking at dead cells and ripped paper and the little fibers in the microscopes when we were learning the skills. Once we learned them we matched up the fibre from the crime scene to fabric from the suspect’s shirt. I also liked reading and learning about fingerprints and taking the fingerprints.
Year 9 Waiporoporo Students Take a Trip to Christchurch City
For Year 9 Integrated Studies in term 1, the class of Waiporoporo learners explored the connection between Mathematics and Health Education in their class. Mrs Huxtable and Miss Katene took the students through different learning tasks to discover how Maths can connect with Health.
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In preparation for the students' final report in class they all went to explore Christchurch City on Friday 29 March. The students were each given booklets to complete that covered how the city can impact well-being, and measuring different dimensions of the city to draw it to scale, and work out the area and perimeter. Students were in groups and given different measuring devices while we were in town. At the end of the day, because the students had worked so well, we were able to spend the spare time we had left at The Margaret Mahy playground.
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The day went really well in town and then students spent the last two weeks of term completing their final reports in class. Each student made their own recommendations for the city, with the purpose that their recommendations will better meet the needs of the well-being of our community.
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Each term the classes rotate and experience another Integrated Studies class.
