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
Mathematics and Statistics
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa.
It has been a dynamic year for our Mathematics and Statistics Learning Area. Ms Nijdam joined our school as HoLA at the start of this year, with the rest of our team consisting of Ms Lu (Assistant HoLA), Mr Hoffman (new this year), Mr Dickson, Mr Osborne, Mr Fielding, Mrs Huxtable,
Mr Timo, Mr Singh, Miss Sanders, Ms Young and Ms Bradley (until her study leave commenced). During the year Mr Dickson, Ms Wilkinson (who was on maternity leave) and Ms Sanders, left our school to persue other interests. In addition to this, Ms Lu stepped down as Assistant HoLA. Our school was fortunate enough to employ Ms Knowler,
Mrs Mackintosh, Ms Free and Ms Taiaroa. Surrounded by the flux of the move, our Learning Area has successfully provided a stable learning environment for our young people to enhance their mathematical problem solving skills.
In our commitment to continually improve our practice, this year our team has been involved in intensive professional learning around culturally responsive pedagogy: Poutama Pounamu through Waikato University (a school wide initiative); and Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC) through Massey University. Our learners have responded very positively to DMIC lessons and we are looking to make them more a part of our practice next year. The move to our current Linwood College at Ōtākaro site has proven advantageous for our Learning Area, with our learners benefiting from an improved learning environment and increased access to technology, which has resulted in some innovative e-learning in our classes.
Through out the year we have been celebrating the achievements of our junior learners through end of topic test certificates and in class honours boards. We also gave out special mathematics awards in the mid year junior assembly. It was wonderful to see how many learners chose to show case their mathematical achievements at the wā whakanui. In term 4, our team also posted learner work on our new learning management system, Hero, which was published online for learners and their whānau to access.
Our senior learners have been working hard to achieve their potential in their classes, and this has culminated in some very pleasing NCEA internal results across the board. We are looking forward to seeing how they go in their NCEA external examinations. For next year, we have tightened up our senior course selection process to ensure our learners are taking the course that best supports their future career pathway.
One of the highlights of the year has been the excellent real life mathematical learning that has been happening with Mrs Huxtable and Ms Katene, in their Year 9 integrated learning module. Another highlight has been the Possums and Pythagoras programme through Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, that Mrs Knowler’s 10C class were involved in.
Next year will be another dynamic year for our learning area. We are continuing our DMIC learning journey and our Year 7 to 10 learners are going to be a part of a Massey University DMIC Research Project led by Jodie Hunter. Sadly, Mrs Huxtable, is leaving our school. We have been fortunate enough to employ two new team members for 2020:
Garth Lewis (Assistant HoLA) and Saieeswaran Vijayakumar (a qualified actuary).
An address to our learners - remember that numbers count.
Hands On Tasks, DMIC and Integrated Learning
It has been a busy year for Linwood College Math students and teachers. We have done many exciting new things to boost our learning and engagement. Both inside and outside the classroom.
Integrated classes have started this year with Mrs Huxtable from the Maths Department teaming up with Miss Katene from the Health and PE department to deliver a unit of work to all the Year 9s. This unit involved the students learning to measure accurately, convert units of measurement, calculating area and perimeter and drawing to scale all in real life settings including a trip to the city. While the students where in the city they measured specific spaces, analysed and recorded the area's impact on wellbeing and drew the area to scale. They then worked out the area and perimeter of the specific area. At the end of the unit the students finished with a scale drawing and report with recommendations based on their findings.
The teachers have been exploring ways to ensure the students' maths lessons are engaging and focussed on learning. One of the ways we have done this has been the teachers from the Mathematics Department have been undertaking a number of sessions with the DMIC team this year; professional learning and in class support/mentor sessions. DMIC stands for Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities. This is a tool for delivering math lessons which focuses on the student working in groups, learning from each other and deepening their knowledge, learning and understanding themselves by coming to their own discoveries rather than completely teacher led.
DMIC as well as a mixture of hands on activities, integrated classes, regular assessment with feed forward and certificates has made mathematics at Linwood College continue to grow as an engaging, relevant and learning focused subject and course.
