The Curriculum

Te Marautanga

High educational achievement is encouraged at all year levels in the Middle School. We purposefully keep class numbers smaller to enable our dedicated, highly skilled teachers to closely monitor students’ progress, provide optimum teaching and learning support, and extend their abilities.

Year 9 students are tested in a nationally moderated assessment that serves as a benchmark against which students, teachers and families can measure progress. Students are well prepared for the NCEA assessments, which commence in Year 11. With pass rates for all NCEA levels well above the national average, our preparation and programmes are well proven.

The major aims for learning in the Middle School are:

• to give students a sound grounding in the core subjects;
• to give students the opportunity to explore and experience a wide range of other curriculum areas with specialist teachers;
• to give students a sound preparation in the subjects they are studying for external awards and qualifications.

Curriculum – Secondary School 2024

Our online Curriculum Book is the primary source of information about Curriculum Option Selections.

Curriculum Book >

Years 9 and 10

The curriculum is structured so that students experience a wide range of subjects, core and options, through a wide range of learning situations and experiences over these two years.

It is important that students do not specialise in particular subject areas at this level. Gaining a broad experience is one of our key principles.

Year 11

While this year is the first year of study for external qualifications, courses at this level should also be broad‑based so that students have a number of different options in the future. Students will start to specialise more in Year 12 and this will be continued with greater depth in final year studies. For further NCEA information, please click here.

What works well in learning in the Middle School – be sure to:

1. Set yourself both short-term and long-term goals. A Year 11 student might set NCEA Level 1 as a long-term goal and making the First XI as a short-term goal.
2. Each week, plan your time after school so that all aspects such as homework, sports and social life can be fitted in. Make sure you prioritise so that the important things get done.
3. Take good notes in class, try to personalise them and file them in an efficient and systematic way.
4. Participate actively in each lesson.
5. Keep up with your homework. If there are any concerns, seek help from your teacher or other support people such as fellow students, your tutor or the Dean. Use your homework time to review what you have been studying – this is a particularly good thing to do in those times when you don’t actually have any homework.
6. Have a wall planner at home or some other form of organiser, and enter all dates for assessments, tests and projects for each term. Include other events as they might impact on your academic programme. Take internal assessment seriously. Internal assessment is the ‘real thing’. It provides results which stay on your Record of Achievement. Make sure you know precisely what is required for an assessment and, if possible, practise using exemplars from the NZQA website, as they provide a ‘picture’ of what is required of a student’s answer for the various NCEA achievement levels. Keep a record of your assessment results and be sure to use the Community Portal to access those results regularly, especially in the second half of the year.
7. Make sure you have written down all key dates, homework and other events in a diary. 
8. Know what is required to gain an NCEA Level qualification.

Course Outlines

Current students and parents can view course outlines by clicking here.

Curriculum Core and Options