Newsletter No.3 - Western Springs College

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ENGLISHOur junior programmes are ticking along and students are encouraged to make links betweenwhat is happening in class and the skills we are attempting to develop through the new WSCJunior Learning Culture. All classes have been issued with module outlines that outline the themeof the term’s work and make clear what the assessment objectives are for this term.Our last four weeks of term in year 11 will be spent preparing for the speech assessment in thefinal week. Students have a choice to either persuade the class about an issue that is important tothem, or speak about a topic related to the text they have been studying in class. Students canresearch and practice their speeches at home and it can help to have a practice audience to makethat an authentic experience. When giving feedback, focus on:Ideas - are ideas developed and supported with facts/evidence?Eye contact – is this regular and meaningful? Is the speech well memorised? Cue cardsshould be used and should only have notes rather than the whole speech.Body language – does gesture help reinforce the points being made?Length – is the speech three minutes long?Your student will have a copy of the task which outlines the criteria of the assessment. If you havequestions, feel free to ask your student’s English teacher or email me on develterb@wsc.school.nzYear 12 will spend the last three weeks of term on a choice of creative writing tasks, while theirsecond personal response (on an extended text) is due on the 12 th of April. This is a week soonerthat we had originally planned, so that we are able to resubmit and mark that work before the endof term. Your student should be well underway with the reading for that response. Our year 12website has the task and new timeline, as well as other useful resources for this and our otherstandards - https://sites.google.com/a/wsc.school.nz/year-12-english/The year 12 writing portfolio will be completed at school to ensure authenticity, but the year 13writing will be completed both at school and at home. Our use of the school Google Docs system iscritical in helping us identify when work is completed and what changes are made. Whereverthere is doubt over the authenticity of a student’s work, that piece is no longer considered for theassessment and further action may be taken. The first piece of writing for the year 13 portfolio (aliterary essay on our first studied text) is coming up in the last two weeks of this term.Outside of class, our debaters have made a super start with both Junior Open teams winning theirfirst debates. Team 1 (Savannah Murphy, William Savoy and James McEwen) and Team 2 (RhonaRobertson, Annabella Schnabel and Spencer Smith) successfully debated that New Zealand shouldban cats. They are on opposing sides of their next moot, that New Zealand should abolish thearmed forces.The writers’ group is also well established, thanks to the hard work of Miriam Kent and DavidBurton. There is a fascinating mix of different writing projects on the go. A highlight coming upfor them is the trip to the Writers and Readers Festival in May, where they will go to sessionspresented by Ben Goldacre, Kate De Goldi, Albert Wendt, Oliver Phommavanh, Patrick Ness, LaniWendt Young, Libba Bray and Tama Waipara. It’s an inspiring day and one that’s sure to leave alasting impression.David Larsen is well underway with his Scholarship group, with 18 keen year 13 students so far.It is hoped we can build on last year’s success, where we had four Scholarships, including oneOutstanding.The Book Club is also running in the library on Monday lunchtimes. Sarah and Molly have beenannouncing details in house assemblies this week and we encourage all keen readers to come
along. We are hoping to have book club members review a lot of the new books coming into thelibrary and create displays to encourage reading.Remember your go-to people for English this year – Ali Geursen (geursena@wsc.school.nz ) forjunior English, David Larsen (larsend@wsc.school.nz) for year 13 and me for years 11 and 12.GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT NEWSBelinda DevelterHOD EnglishYear 11 students visited North Head to research the mystery of the missing early Boeing aircraftand their possible location within North Head, for an internal assessment worth 4 credits.Year 12 students achieved a remarkable 25kms traverse, from West to East, across the TongariroNational Park, researching weather variations horizontally and vertically, for an internalassessment worth 5 credits.Year 13 are looking forward to 5 days in Christchurch and Queenstown, studying the re-build ofChristchurch, for an internal assessment worth 3 credits, and the process of TourismDevelopment in Queenstown for an external, while researching the impacts of tourismdevelopment for an internal assessment worth 5 credits.Jenny Jones
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Newsletter No.3 - Western Springs College

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