Week 2 Term 1: English Department: Focus and Goals for 2025 (Feb 03 - Feb 07)

English Department @ Careers Expo 2024

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 2025 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 2024 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.

Going into 2025 I would like the Department to focus on TWO on the School Goals. 

Goal 1 Māori Achievement

To raise Māori student achievement and cultural visibility.

That 85% of Māori students will achieve NCEA Level 2.

English Department @ Year 8 College Experience Day 2024

We will focus on tracking our Māori student achievement data for NCEA Level 2 English. We will look at both achievement and non achievement and identify what the key drivers are for achievement/non achievement. I hope that we can work closely with the Māori students in NCEA Level 2 English to see what is working and what we can do to better support them. 

Goal 3 Literacy and Numeracy

By the end of Year 10, 80% of students will be reading at or above the expected level

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are writing at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are achieving in Mathematics at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Literacy.

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Numeracy.

Structured Literacy PLD with Dr Jannie

We will focus specifically on Literacy. Our priority will be focusing on the Structured Literacy program that we working on with our Literacy Expert (Dr Jannie) in conjunction with the Social Science and Science Department. We will also look at literacy and reading skill strategies and implementing this in our curriculum throughout Term 1, 2 and 3 with the support of our Literacy Coordinator (Mr Milford). The hope is that this will support and strengthen the literacy across our Year 9 and Year 10 English cohort. 

We will also continue to evolve and design our curriculum that fits our students. As mentioned in my earlier post from Term 4 2024 - "WHO we teach determines WHAT we teach" (Claudia Rozas - UoA). We want to ensure that our curriculum not only reflects the curriculum refresh but also the society, community and students that we work with. We are constantly growing and redesigning our curriculum to cater and serve our akonga, Te Mataiaho and our school's vision. Please see our Department landing site page for our curriculum for 2025 and our teacher sites here - Tamaki College English Department Sites.