Week 1 Term 1 - English Department - English Department Review 2023 + Goals for 2024 (January 29 - February 2)

English Department 2023

2023 was an emotional, full on, challenging and rewarding year for our English Department. Our goal for 2023 was to deliver a learning program and experience that would be meaningful for our akonga. We wanted to continue to support and nurture our student’s literacy journey particularly in Year 9 and Year 10 English. We wanted to make sure that our NCEA students were able to get the credits that they needed. There were many interruptions that we faced that created barriers in the teaching and learning - specifically the PPTA Teacher Strikes which had an impact on our NCEA students' learning and credit achievement. We spent most of Term 3 and 4 trying to close the gap with their learning, which proved to be both challenging but also rewarding as the students were keen to get through the credits for NCEA English. A review of how each semester went was shared through the annual Term starter pack. Our story of 2023 is captured in more detail in our term reviews.

I want to acknowledge, thank and celebrate the English Department - Mrs Pravina Harde, Mrs Christine Williams, Mr Faiyaz Hoosein, Mr Jeremy Spruyt, Ms Anahina Latu, Ms Francis Kolo, Ms Vivienne Jensen-Jones and Mr Marc Milford. Thank you for your friendship, support, service and love that you have gifted and shown to our department and to our akonga. It is a privilege to do this work with you all and I look forward to what we are going to achieve together this year. We will now take a look at our self-review of our School Goals, Junior and Senior English program for 2023.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT REVIEW 2023: JUNIOR ENGLISH

Year 10 Literacy Pilot Group 2023

Our Junior English Program is one that is continuing to evolve especially with the new curriculum refresh. We have a clear plan for our Year 9 and Year 10 English program, a program where we cover the same text type and common assessment task. Our Junior English teachers have the freedom to choose the text type and assessment criteria for the CAT so that it aligns with their theme. Our program for our Junior English program for 2023 was:

Term 1: Extended Text Study + Formal Writing (CAT)

Term 2: Short Text Study + Creative Writing (CAT) + Mid Year Examination

Term 3: Visual Text Study + Close Viewing (CAT)

Term 4: Speech (CAT) + Final Year Examination

With the new Literacy Co-Requisite assessment (Reading - 5 Credits + Writing - 5 Credits), we decided to trial the new co-requisite assessment with a select group of students. The students who were chosen for the trial were sitting at curriculum level 4 to level 5 for PAT Reading. The trial assessment went well and our students felt really good about it.

We also offered NCEA Level 1 credits to our Year 10 cohort, in our attempt to get them to achieve their Literacy credits in Year 10. This proved to be a success with many of our students gaining NCEA Level 1 English credits across the 6 Year 10 English classes.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT REVIEW 2023: SENIOR ENGLISH

Our internal assessment results across our NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 English classes for 2023 were positive. Majority of the students in our NCEA Level 1 cohort achieved credits in English (with the majority gaining literacy through English). We had 10 students who remained on 0 credits in English, so to have the majority achieve credits in what is a very assessment driven and tight program, we are pleased and happy. Our NCEA Level 2 and Level 3 English students did well in 2023 with their internal assessments. Like 2022 and 2021, many of our senior students are juggling work and extracurricular activities and trying to balance school. We are pleased that many of our students in our Level 2 and 3 English classes were able to achieve some if not all of the credits offered in our Senior English program. We also offered literacy credits to our Year 10 cohort, to try and get them their literacy credits before the new curriculum refresh. The English department was very committed in ensuring that their Year 10 students achieved their Literacy credits by the end of 2023. It was definitely a big push but it was worth it as 80% of our Year 10 cohort achieved their Literacy credits. 

We also offered the new literacy co-requisite assessment to a select group of students (ranging from high Level 4 to Level 5 PAT Reading scores). Whilst we were able to stick to our program, I am also aware and grateful that the teachers made time (during their non contact periods, after school etc) to help their students cross the line with their internal assessments. We are really happy with the response from our Year 10 students with the NCEA Level 1 English credits we offered. They were really keen to try and get their literacy credits in Year 10 so that they could bank their 2024 credits and credit it towards their NCEA Level 1 credit protocol.

Our external assessment results highlight a range of concerns. Many of our students achieve NCEA through internal assessments and the priority around external assessments has wavered. When you partner this with ongoing absences, it is inevitable that the external results will hinder. Although the results for our external assessments were not the best in 2023, we are hopeful to create an opportunity for our students to feel confident and comfortable to do the external assessments, to see the importance in doing external assessments and prioritizing them as they are an integral part of one’s learning journey in secondary school. We will delve into the results below for Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 English.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT REVIEW 2023: DEPARTMENT GOALS

English Department 2023

It is important for any team and organization to review where they are at and where they want to go. I hope to use the school goals for 2024 as a focus point for our department going into the new year. I know that from here, our own department goals will spill out from here. Two goals that we did set on achieving in 2023 was developing a new curriculum for our NCEA Level 1 English program (to align with Te Mataiaho: The New Curriculum Refresh) which we have done and also developing our English Department publication of student work ‘Our Voices’ which we were also able to tick off. We hope to continue to work through these two new initiatives and give it the space, support and time it needs to flourish and grow.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT 2024: JUNIOR AND SENIOR ENGLISH PROGRAM

We are excited to work through our new Junior and NCEA Level 1 English program. Our NCEA Level 1 English program is the course that has changed the most to align with the new curriculum refresh. We are looking forward to seeing this come to fruition and to see what is working and what we need to improve on. Please find the new program here: 

Tamaki College English Department: Year 9 and Year 10 Course Outline

Tamaki College English Department: NCEA Level 1 English Course Outline

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT GOALS 2024

Our goals for 2024 are: 

1) Junior English - Start our new Junior English program that aligns with the new curriculum. 

2) NCEA Level 1 English - We look forward to starting our new NCEA Level 1 English program (Our Voices and Our Stories). We will be starting the term with our Visual Text study (The Dark Horse) and then launching into the new assessment - 1.2. I look forward to documenting this. 

3) Literacy Co-Requisite - While literacy is an area that is across all subject areas, we are looking forward to working through this and preparing our students for the new standard. 

4) Our Voice Vol.2 - We look forward to working with our young people in getting them to craft pieces for our Department publication - Our Voices (Vol.2). 

I know that as the year progresses, our goals will shift and change but I am excited to work alongside my team in making sure that these goals are met as best as we can. I am looking forward to this year and I am excited about the work that the team and I are going to do together for our department and our akonga.