Extension

The extension programme at Point England School is designed to provide opportunities to support, challenge and widen the scope of learning for those children who have been noted as being academically competent and talented.

Year 5 and 6 Extension:

The Year 5 & 6 Extension group typically met for 1.5 hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. This year, this programme began in Term 2 due to our biannual Fiafia rehearsals falling on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

All extension children, as well as a number of other children from year 5 - 6 were given the opportunity to compete in the 2021 Kiwi Competitions, run by the University of Canterbury. This was another great opportunity for these children to experience an assessment which children across New Zealand were also sitting. We had one year 6 student get a Merit in the English test.

Term 1 -  Fiafia (No Extension Class)

Term 2 - Changes Matter

In term 2, the Year 5 &6 Extension group learned all about the Māori Lunar Calendar - The Maramataka. Their final project was a DLO created in Scratch to show their learning about the Maramataka.

Term 3 - Fit for Purpose

In term 3, the Year 5 and 6 extension class were tasked with creating a Manaiakalani Film Festival movie. They worked through the whole process, from coming up with ideas, to creating a Storyboard and then finally videoing, animating and editing the movie. 

Year 7 and 8 Extension:

The Year 7 & 8 Extension group typically met for 2 hours every Wednesday morning. 

Term 1 -  Keep it Real (Tika - Pono - Aroha) | The Pt England Way

In term 1, the year 7 & 8 extension children completed a project learning about Protests in Aotearoa. They created scratch projects to share their understanding of a chosen protest that interested them. As part of this inquiry, we also worked through the SchoolKit called Bomb Gone which explored protests and timelines around ensuring NZ became Nuclear Free.

Term 3 - Fit for Purpose

In term 3, the children explored Parliament and Elections, in preparation for the NZ parliamentary elections which were held at the beginning of Term 4. They read articles, thought about why and how decisions are made, and wrote a script for their Manaiakalani Film Festival movie. They had the opportunity to participate in the Kids Vote, replicating the real voting process for MMP in NZ.

Term 4 - Make It Work

In term 4, the year 7 & 8 extension group were tasked with creating a futuristic design to solve a problem. They researched inventions which had extended human capabilities and then thought about what could still be done. They had to think through the purpose of their technological design, details of the design and then explain how their design would function.

Eleni's Project

Zaria's Project

Classroom@KPMG

This year, 30 Year 7 & 8 children had three opportunities to attend KPMG as part of the Classroom@KPMG programme. 

Term 2: The term 2 trip was focussed on our school inquiry in Science around Changes of Matter. KPMG sponsored our school to an annual subscription of the House of Science Kit. On our day at KPMG, the students were given opportunities to participate in a range of science experiments.

Term 3: The term 3 trip was focussed on our school inquiry around healthy living. They children had an opportunity to learn about Te Whare Tapa Wha and create their own model, using this learning experience. Synergy Health donated our students who attended each a pedometer! The children were so grateful for this gift!

Here is a blog post from Victoria to say thank you.

Term 4: The term 4 trip focussed on our school inquiry of technology. The students had an opportunity to create codable artwork, using MakeyMakey.

We feel very fortunate to have KPMG put so much time and energy into hosting us and making the days enjoyable, engaging and great learning experiences for our Year 7 and 8 students.

Manaiakalani Film Festival Presenters

We had 50 children from across the school (Year 1 up to Year 8) present our film festival movies live at Hoyts Cinema in Sylvia Park. This is an opportunity to extend children with their public speaking capabilities and confidence. All the children did a fantastic job and represented the school incredibly.

Year 4 Maths Extension Class

This year as part of my within school Kāhui Ako role, I have taken a group of 15 Year 4 students for a weekly Maths extension programme. The purpose of this programme has been to support students with their application of maths through a variety of problems.

You can read more about my work with this group on my blog.

Blake NZ-VR

This year we had a visit from Blake NZ-VR to give our children in Year 5 a virtual reality experience. It has been a few years since we last had them visit and it once again proved to a valuable and enjoyable experience by the children and teachers involved. This is definitely an experience we will request again going forward.

Our tamariki have had multiple opportunities this year to see the power of the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy, use their blogs to interact with their audience who participate and contribute to their learning through this medium. This continues to be hugely motivating for many of the children.

We look forward to continuing to inspire and motivate our tamariki  through connecting with groups outside of our school to learn, create and share in a way that benefits the wider community and continues to teach valuable skills of leadership, responsibility, speaking and presenting and being able to make a difference in society. 

Hannah Burton

Extension teacher

November 2023