Learning Acceleration

2023 has been a very busy year in Learning Acceleration. 

South Pacific Education Courses (SPEC) 

SPEC has run with a Year 7 group and Year 8 group working twice a week with Mr Lowe and Victoria.  This year, these groups have also incorporated some of our Aukaha learners. We have used two of the SPEC resources in these classes with a number of students earning their end of module certificates. Congratulations to all learners who have worked hard and enjoyed the programme.

The Year 9 and 10 SPEC programme has happened within the 9KGU and 10DML. Miss Dumelow led both programmes with the 

help of our Learning Assistants, Nat Triggs, Carlene Kiesanowski and Aroha Jackson.  We had some of the students complete their module books and earn their end of module certificates. On top of this, there were many interesting learning goals worked on and achieved.

In our senior SPEC programme, we have had a group of Y 11 - 13 students working with Tracey and Victoria throughout the year.  One of our students became the first Te Aratai student to complete the NZQA  New Zealand Certificate in Foundation Skills Level 1.  Congratulations to Jett Seaton! Jett worked extremely hard throughout this year to achieve this. Well done to all our students who completed their modules of work and participated throughout the year in our class.

Aukaha

Our numbers of students in our Aukaha programme grew to 12 students this year. Mr Lowe, Debbie and the students in Aukaha have undertaken a number of exciting opportunities this year. These have included weekly visits to Tūranga, our wonderful central library; weekly sporting activities in an inter-school competition, competing with students from other high schools and specialist schools from around Christchurch; a very exciting programme through Duke of Edinburgh. All of this on top of the varied activities the students enjoy within Aukaha as well as in their classroom programmes. 

Thinking back to the beginning of the year, welcoming our new students in and seeing the growth of all our Aukaha students in terms of their confidence at school and their social learning, it has been a very successful year. Thank you to all the students, their whānau and the Learning Assistants and teachers working in Aukaha! 

9KGU and 10DML

Kath and Miss Dumelow have done a great job of leading these two classes, with the support of our Learning Assistants Nat Triggs, Carlene Kiesanowski and Aroha Jackson.  

The students in both classes have enjoyed the opportunity of working on structured literacy with Kath and making some awesome progress in their reading and writing. We have even had one of our students in 10DML pass the co-requisite reading exam for NCEA. Congratulations Torryn Sinclair-Wright!

Miss Dumelow worked very closely with Mr Harding on the Health and PE curriculum, combining both classes for each lesson. Overall, this was a really awesome focus for the students. 

Once again Kath introduced her chicken hatching programme in 9KGU which was really exciting for everyone. 

We were very sad to farewell Miss Dumelow in October this year.  Briar has left her mark on many of our students and they will remember her very fondly in the years to come! During term 4 we have been extremely grateful to have Bree Le Cren, one of our regular relievers, step up and teach 10DML. We are in the throes of appointing our new teacher for our 2024 class. 

Learning Assistants

With the school roll growing, so have the number of wonderful people who have joined our Learning Assistant team. There has been some movement of staff during the year but currently we are employing 16 Learning Assistants through our department as well as our four teaching staff. We are a department of 20 adults working throughout the school. Two words that most epitomise our team are flexibility and resourcefulness. With the busyness of our school each day, our Learning Assistants are regularly required to move seamlessly from different spaces, working across ages and learning levels, carrying out a myriad of roles as they meet the needs of our very diverse learning community. 

We thank you for the incredible and tremendous work you take undertake, embodying each and every day our ngā uara - Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga, Rangatiratanga and Tūrangawaewae. 

Finally, with a very grateful heart I acknowledge how privileged I am to work with such a dedicated team of teachers and Learning Assistants. Thank you to the  people who walk alongside us from MOE, BLENNZ, Ko Taku Reo and from across the wider school. Thank you to our whānau who entrust their young people to us. Our greatest thanks to the rangatahi we work with every day. You are our inspiration!

This year we were delighted to offer the opportunity for our students with ORS funding to work towards their bronze award for the Duke of Edinburgh.  

Firstly we want to thank Ms Dumelow the outgoing Duke of Edinburgh coordinator and learning support teacher. This would not have been possible without her mahi and support. 

The Aukaha students are all very close to finishing their bronze award. They completed their three adventurous journeys this year. How amazing are they!