Register 2019

macroeconomic knowledge but fell short of making the final. I would like to thank the members of the Commerce department – Graeme Christey, Katie Southworth, Mike Field and Jennifer Wong – for all their dedication and hard work. Your commitment throughout the year contributes to the continued success of our students and the department.

assist in extension and Scholarship preparation across the department. Next year, Alex Robertson will move out of the English Department to focus on ESOL tuition and her new role as Housemaster of Condell’s House, and Nikki Bleyendaal will have a reduced load in English to facilitate her teaching two Drama classes. At the start of 2020, we welcome Claire Nicolson to the department. A confident and highly enthusiastic teacher, Claire is sure to fit right in. Along with having taught at Nayland College, Nelson, she brings a wealth of experience from various teaching positions in London. Claire also has a strong background in sports and outdoor activities, which will no doubt be put to good use in the wider life of the school. We are incredibly fortunate to have her join the team; we extend our warmest welcome and look forward to supporting her professional growth as she negotiates the exciting challenges that come with being a teacher at College. Department Vision by Zach Knight, Assistant HoD As a teacher new to College, I am able to offer some thoughts and observations on the changes we have made to our senior English programmes from a fresh perspective. Thanks to the relentless hard work of HoD Sian Evans, we have made numerous changes designed to promote stronger engagement and academic achievement from our boys. I am very impressed by how our senior courses are bound by a strong conceptual focus at each year level, while offering a rich array of work and assessments strategically picked to avoid that age-old student protest: “But didn’t we do this last year?” For me, one of the best strengths of our department is seeing “big picture” plans through to fruition. The outcome is high-quality teaching and learning programmes that are responsive to the boys’ needs, engaging, and academically aspirational. With the NCEA review well underway, we look forward to

seeing how these changes might provide even greater scope for enhancing our senior courses. In my role as Assistant HoD, I appreciate having had the opportunity to lead similar changes at the junior level. One of the ways we have achieved this is by separating key content into different learning areas at Years 9 and 10. While the purpose of both programmes is to aid boys in their growth as readers, writers, and thinkers, there are many ways to “make meaning” and “create meaning” in the subject we nominally call “English”. It is important that boys are equipped to read many text types and express themselves in different ways, and our junior programmes are designed to ensure this happens. Alongside nurturing an appreciation of classical and contemporary literature, our Year 9 programme is geared towards developing strategic, self-aware readers and writers. We include everything from Shakespeare to New Zealand literature, with some classes throwing in a novel study for good measure. In contrast, our Year 10 programme focuses more on immersing boys in visual and oral texts, thereby placing the emphasis on skills that are widely considered as crucial for success in the 21st century: listening, speaking, viewing, and presenting. Next year, we plan to make some modifications to junior assessment practices so that the majority of tasks are assignment- based as opposed to being presented in an exam format. Through this change, we hope a shift in mindset will follow, whereby assessments are thought of as tools for further learning instead of as the limit of one’s capacity to achieve. Literary Events Once again, we have been lucky to be involved in a range of exciting events for boys in our subject area. The return of award-winning author Apirana Taylor was a highlight. Performing an eclectic pastiche of his poetry, Apirana’s high- energy performances are always

William Bell Acting HoD Commerce

ENGLISH Once again, this has been a busy year for the English Department. In Term 1, we welcomed Zac Knight as our new Assistant Head of English. Zac has already made a huge impact on our Year 9 and 10 programmes and is universally loved by staff and students alike. We hope to keep him here for many years to come. We also welcomed back Ginny Patterson and Melissa Campbell, both of whom had been on maternity leave in 2018. Ginny and Melissa both started the year part-time and ended it on a heavier teaching load than initially anticipated, and we thank them for stepping in to help out. This change was necessitated by the promotion of Nicole Billante to Assistant Principal – Curriculum in Term 3. While we will miss Nicole as a teacher in our department, we are enjoying working with her in her new role. Melissa was appointed Acting Head of Teaching & Learning – English and Humanities in Term 3. She has now been confirmed in this role, and will remain a full-time English teacher. Ginny goes back to part- time teaching in 2020, and will also be working on an academic research project. Olivia Austin, who joined us on maternity leave cover in 2018, stayed on this year to cover Chloe Harland’s maternity leave across Classics and English. Following Chloe’s resignation, Olivia has been appointed permanently to the staff. In July, we farewelled Conor McGillan (Brasenose College, Oxford) and welcomed Ruth Simms (Mansfield College, Oxford) as English tutor, to

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Christ’s College Canterbury

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