Our Curriculum
Our day usually starts with literacy for all our students. Our junior team uses a structured literacy approach to teach reading which flows into our writing, and phonics programmes. Our senior team typically links writing and reading in with our topic learning area and uses a structured spelling programme.
For mathematics, our junior team uses a maths programme called Numicon. This is a hands-on structured maths programme that was developed in the United Kingdom. To find out more, use this link
Our senior team uses Pr1me Mathematics. Pr1me Mathematics is programme based on the syllabus from Singapore and Hong Kong and is used in 58 countries. To find out more, use this link
Recently we decided to move away from an integrated approach (teaching the subjects all together around a theme) to teach Science, Technology, The Arts, Health and Social Studies. We felt that subject-specific skills and knowledge were getting lost in the busyness of integration and therefore the students were missing out on some of the essentials. Now we teach each subject area as a stand alone. For example, as I write this, we are teaching chemistry as part of Science. Following this, we are doing history as part of Social Studies. We bring local aspects as well as wider community aspects to these subjects. Of course there is a natural cross over into other subjects and we do cover these as well. But our focus in ensuring students receive the subject-specific essential skills and knowledge.
We have several sports days in which the students get to showcase their PE skills and once a year we head up to Mt Hutt for a ski day.
Overnight camps start in Year 4 with a trip to Timaru. Our Year 5 & 6s alternate between Living Springs and Woodend. And our Y7 & 8s head on down to Stewart Island every second year. They have a winter camp at Glentanner on the alternate years
For mathematics, our junior team uses a maths programme called Numicon. This is a hands-on structured maths programme that was developed in the United Kingdom. To find out more, use this link
Our senior team uses Pr1me Mathematics. Pr1me Mathematics is programme based on the syllabus from Singapore and Hong Kong and is used in 58 countries. To find out more, use this link
Recently we decided to move away from an integrated approach (teaching the subjects all together around a theme) to teach Science, Technology, The Arts, Health and Social Studies. We felt that subject-specific skills and knowledge were getting lost in the busyness of integration and therefore the students were missing out on some of the essentials. Now we teach each subject area as a stand alone. For example, as I write this, we are teaching chemistry as part of Science. Following this, we are doing history as part of Social Studies. We bring local aspects as well as wider community aspects to these subjects. Of course there is a natural cross over into other subjects and we do cover these as well. But our focus in ensuring students receive the subject-specific essential skills and knowledge.
We have several sports days in which the students get to showcase their PE skills and once a year we head up to Mt Hutt for a ski day.
Overnight camps start in Year 4 with a trip to Timaru. Our Year 5 & 6s alternate between Living Springs and Woodend. And our Y7 & 8s head on down to Stewart Island every second year. They have a winter camp at Glentanner on the alternate years
