Specialists

We are provided staffing, by the Ministry of Education and as a school we are able to allocate this staffing to best meet the needs of our curriculum and philosophy.  For many years now, we have used this additional staffing to fund specialist teachers, who take all our children in specific subjects.

We have a Physical Education (PE) specialist teacher, who takes 45 minute lessons each week, for each class.  This provides classroom release time for individual teachers, who use the time to meet with parents, test students, collect resources, manage classroom displays or activities and innovate programmes.  The PE lessons take students through a range of skill based activities as well as learning the specifics of particular sports.  From Year 4, students can also represent the school in a variety of codes, coached and managed by our PE specialist.

Our Music and Wellbeing programme is managed by specialist teachers. Our Music programme provided students with the opportunity to learn different genres of music and includes a variety of additional opportunities for students to be involved in music/performance groups, during the year.  

Our Wellbeing programme creates opportunities for students to learn about the importance of looking after yourself  by giving children the opportunity to learn the necessary skills and strategies that may help them to enhance their mental health and overall Hauora.  Targeted wellbeing sessions are also provided for children that may need extra support during times of need.

We undertake ‘Technology’ through STEAM, with all students having opportunities to develop skills across the areas of technology (food-technology, textiles technology and hard-materials).  We are well resourced with technology spaces including our amazing Kakapo Cafe, Maker Space, Maker Shed and Art areas and we have a number of teaching staff who are specialists in these areas.

Students are provided with the opportunity to take part in cooking and food technology classes.  Our Enviro programme creates opportunities for our children to work in the garden to provide healthy fruit and vegetables so that students can learn the life skill of cooking and eating healthy food and meals, a real ‘garden to plate’ experience.  

We provide opportunities to learn the second languages of Chinese and Spanish and these are taken by specialist staff who are fluent in these languages.

We are also fortunate to have provision to teach coding and this is done from Year 1, by the classroom teachers and supported by our Leader Teacher of IT..  As the children move through the school, they are taught increasing amounts of coding, until Year 7 & 8 where they receive specialist teaching in this area, as appropriate.

Our aim is to integrate the skills and talents of our specialist teachers, into the collaborative teaching and learning environment of our school.