to earthquakes and volcanoes, that have occurred around the world and the implications of these events on New Zealand. We were lucky to have Dr Anna Johnston join us in the second half of the year, teaching a natural events class and bringing her vast experience to the classroom, and making the subject come alive for the students. The topic of mega cities once again proved a popular choice and Mr Kim brought his vast overseas experience to this topic, enlightening and encouraging boys through this introductory course. Our Prep classes have really exploded in numbers and have proved very popular with the Year 11 students. As a result, we have had to put on two field trips to the Craigieburn Basin area to accommodate the large student numbers. The boys were able to experience rafting part of the Waimakariri River one day and then summiting Mount Cockayne at 1874m the next. The diversity of the environment is a good lead-in point to the Year 12 South Island high country course. The Amazon Basin rainforest course has looked at a diverse variety of topics, from tropical diseases like malaria, to cocaine production, and through to deforestation and the global impacts of climate change. Year 12 boys were kept busy in Term 1 prepping background information and field surveying skills for the three-day trip to Mount Cheeseman in the Craigieburn Range. This field trip is very important in our year’s work as it addresses three assessment standards: geographic research, the issue of wilding pines in the high country, and the end-of- year external standard on a large natural environment. Working in small groups, the boys measured and recorded aspects of the weather, vegetation, soils, and landforms at a range of sites from the top of Mount Cockayne down to the Craigieburn Basin floor. The patterns revealed by the data then formed the basis of their research findings and they were able to compare the vegetation and soils of the western high country
with the eastern high country. This year's trip also included the return of the Head of English, Chris Waugh, who brought his vast outdoor knowledge and also managed to integrate English standards into the experience for the boys. We have continued to streamline and update our exciting new junior curriculum for the College Diploma, which will enable the boys to study both local and global geographic phenomena. Field trips are a crucial part of the geography syllabus, allowing students to immerse themselves in the environments that they have studied in class. This is well received by the boys and provides some good stories, experiences, and knowledge to take home and share with their families. We are often asked: “What is the value of geography to the boys?” Our response is always aligned with the idea of providing them with the best opportunity to see and learn about the world around them. Once again, we had a successful 2022 with Scholarship examinations, with Oscar Gosling being awarded an Outstanding Scholarship. Credit should be shared with Dr Johnston and Mr Kim, who have opened young minds to the wonders of the world. Their experience and zest for the subject have allowed the natural and cultural environments that make up our world to come to life inside their classrooms.
each unit, creating greater stability for students. It also has opened up the department, with Nicole Billante joining the team, and aided greater collaboration with the Geography Department in the Miles Warren block. To begin the year, we have focused on tuˉrangawaewae to acquaint the students with College and Canterbury history. This includes campus tours and a trip to the Ko Taˉna waka experience where boys learn about the history of Victoria Square (originally a marketplace), in addition to important stories of Ngaˉi Tahu iwi and early European settlers. They also have paddled a handcrafted waka in teams, with some healthy competition in the mix too. In the Geography unit, students learn skills such as map interpretation and creation, and graphing techniques. Through this time, the students have undertaken the annual Year 9 trip to Lyttelton to gather information about land use for a research assignment and online mapping task. The unit has ended with an investigation into migration, particularly from the Pacific Islands, which has flowed seamlessly into the History unit. During History, students learn about early Aotearoa history from both Maˉori and Paˉkehaˉ perspectives and some of the main contentions that led to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and developing conflicts in the following decades. The main skills focus is the interpretation of historical sources, accessing perspectives, and structured paragraph writing. In Systems and Justice, students have been organised into political parties and run campaigns, fortuitously timed with the 2023 General Election, before learning more about the justice system, the Waitangi Tribunal, and the United Nations. In the College Diploma classes, there has been some fantastic creativity with tasks and historical skills. In the core classes, students have created interactive presentations about key battles within a range of wars, plotted and analysed the hometowns of New Zealand's fallen soldiers to investigate the scale of death from
Neil Nicholson HoD Geography
HISTORY It has been a great year for continuing to build and balance consistency and innovation in the History Department. It has felt that, at any given time, there is something exciting happening – a great student exemplar or a more creative angle on a task. This year, we have implemented a new trimester model for the Year 9 programme that has resulted in a connection between the Geography, History, and Systems & Justice learning units. As a result, each class has remained with the teacher for
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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