lodge 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 Mt Cockayne (1874m) 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. Internally assessed standards also included the changing historical patterns of murder in Chicago as an urban study and the patterns of malaria and zika virus around the globe. Behind the scenes we have been working on an exciting new curriculum for the new College diploma, which will enable the boys to study both local and global geographic phenomena. Fieldtrips to Kaikoura to investigate the effects of the Kaikoura earthquake in 2016 and tourism development in Queenstown are now back as part of opening and immersing students into the environments that they have studied. Congratulations go to the 2021 Geography Prize winners: Year 9 Overall Excellence – Daniel Wilson Year 10 Overall Excellence – Oscar Compton-Moen Year 11 Overall Excellence – Sean Jang Year 12 Le Cren prize for Research – Oscar Gosling Year 12 Overall Excellence – Bruce Chen
proved to be an enthusiastic and hard-working teacher, while Melissa left College at the end of the term for Rangi Ruru Girls’ School’s Senior Management team. From Term 2, College’s International Student Manager, Paul McCarthy, began to teach a Year 10 class. Congratulations to our three History scholarship winners from the 2020 NZQA assessments. John-Paul Lay, Matthew Gibb and Charlie Owens were asked to create an argument about how collective memory influences the historical narrative. It should be emphasised that in order for these boys to gain scholarship, they participated in an ‘extra class’ per week through online Sunday night sessions. While gaining the result is outstanding, the effort, commitment and perseverance is even more important to note, especially on top of their own class learning for all subjects and their extra interests. While Covid-19 may have once more caught the headlines in 2021, history educators throughout New Zealand were focusing on the changing nature of teaching Aotearoa New Zealand history, and the fact that this was being made compulsory in 2022. This decision was then deferred late in the academic year following the impact of lockdowns in schools nationwide. To complicate the planning for College was the additional layer of the new Christ’s College Diploma, Ngaˉ Miha. In the end, to meet the intent of the Aotearoa New Zealand curriculum, College decided to introduce this as a compulsory rotation for all Year 9 students. Our focus in 2022 will be to investigate five different areas: Migration to New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi and its impact, the development of Canterbury, New Zealand Identity and New Zealand’s Place in the World. Learning about our country ‘should not be left to chance,’ but it also may be very ambitious as the College curriculum change means that History will also move from a half year subject to a trimester. Likewise, much teacher reflection and work led to the development of Core (Abuse of
Power, and War and Society) and Prep (Rugby, Race and Revolution, and Outwit, Outlast, Outplay: The intrigue of gaining world supremacy) history programmes and an understanding of how the skills of history are developed to create our learning progressions. This was all completed on top of the usual teaching programme and a period of lockdown teaching. So, 2021 has been a big year in thinking and preparing. Importantly, the real positive of this is that our junior programmes are being refined after a long period of focus upon NCEA and the senior school. I would also like to wish the leaving Year 13 historians all the best for their futures. A number of our students are highly capable young historians and have been fantastic examples of the kind of boys Christ’s College is attempting to produce. They will be missed as they progress to their exciting futures. Warren Lidstone HoD History LEARNING CENTRE & ESOL Learning Support continues to be an important aspect of the Christ’s College academic programme and we have supported more than 100 boys in the department this year, in both the literacy and numeracy areas. This support has ranged from boys having Learning Support as a timetabled subject in Years 9, 10, 11 and 12, to others coming weekly on a rotational basis from all year groups. Gill Kilpatrick, Lesley Anderson-McKenna and Alex Robertson have all supported a number of senior boys this year. Many Year 13 students continue to use learning support on a needs basis and it is always rewarding to see the older students becoming more independent and putting into practice the skills they have been taught over the years. We have become increasingly concerned about the reading skills of the students coming to us in Year 9, and have been looking
Neil Nicholson HoD Geography
HISTORY The new year began with Josh Kim and Melissa Campbell joining the History staff to teach a class at Year 11 and Year 10 respectively. Josh
46
Christ’s College Canterbury
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software