Junior Classes (Social Studies) – in Year 9, the emphasis is on countries/cultures e.g. China/Pacific Islands and New Zealand, whilst in Year 10, the topics are thematic e.g. Rights and Refugees, Making and Keeping Agreements. In the Senior School, Achievement Standards based courses occur in Geography, History from Levels 1 – 3.
A Unit Standards based course in Tourism and Travel is available for Level 2 and some Level 3 standards. This is a two year course, all others are one year courses.
Teamwork exercises encourage a hands-on approach and develop the kinaesthetic skills of students. Such tasks involve model building, montage and collage preparation, chart work and game development. These are the Specific Learning outcomes of Social Studies. We are in the process of introducing GIS into our senior (geography) programmes now that we have stand alone computers.
The introduction of a Reading Programme into Social Studies 3 years ago requires students to spend some time of each period (10 – 15 minutes) doing reading. Reading related activities provide an equal emphasis on writing in an endeavour to raise the information gathering skills and the written communication skills of students. NCEA places a greater emphasis of these skills as students are expected to be able to read instructions carefully and to write coherently, in sentence and paragraph format.
Staff:
Head of Department is Mrs Anderson.
Assistant teachers include Mrs Te Amo, Ms Gilbert, Mr Callaghan, Mrs Morrell (HOD Te Reo), Mrs Jefferson, Mr Chapman and Mr Manuel.