​​​​​​​Enrichment and Learning Support

Enrichment

Gifted and talented students at Napier Girls’ High School are identified through on-going testing and information provided by contributing schools, deans, teachers, parents, peers and students. There are many areas in which students can have special skills including academic, music, sport, culture, social and leadership.

Parents and students can contact the Dean or Deputy Principal, Amanda Johnson (extn 213) to provide or seek more information.

Students are assisted to develop their skills in ways that are appropriate to each individual. 

Key points:

  1. Enrichment will be offered to ALL students

  2. Enrichment activities will be “opt-in” (as opposed to only being offered to teacher selected students). Participation will help guide decisions about extension groups and subsequent acceleration for individuals

  3. There are many opportunities for enrichment beyond the classroom that we encourage our students to be involved in

  4. Exceptional students will continue to be offered acceleration in the senior school in up to three individual subjects

What will enrichment look like within Year 9 and 10 classes?

  • Differentiated and personalised learning

  • Feedback/feedforward using curriculum levels to accelerate learning

  • Focus on both breadth and depth in learning programmes

Some specific examples from Learning Areas:

Maths - Low entry, high ceiling problems. An extension project will be offered.

Social Science - Must Do/Could Do/Extension options for all topics

Science - Science Fair - all of Year 9 offered the opportunity to participate, with a round of judging at school before projects are put through to the regional competition. End of unit assessment will be more portfolio based, rather than topic tests, which gives greater flexibility for extension aspects to be included by individual students. 

PE - leadership opportunities, tūakana/teina model, peer assessment

What will enrichment look like beyond the Year 9 and 10 classrooms?

  • External competitions e.g. Australian Maths Competition, RSA Speech Competition, Re-draft Writing Competition, The Hillary Duke of Edinburgh Award, NZALT (Languages) Speech Competition, Model UN Competition, Young Enterprise

  • Internal competitions e.g. PE - Leaderboard for Fitness Unit, and weekly fitness challenges for each class

  • EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) - field trips relating to Aotearoa Histories curriculum, Massey Science Trip, Spanish Immersion Day, Japanese Quiz Night

  • Clubs e.g. Science Club twice a term, with guest speakers/extension projects

Extension groups will run for 24-30 promising and passionate students in some Learning Areas:

  • English - once a term creative writing workshops 

  • Maths - several half day sessions over the year

  • Science - 2-3 day project at the end of the year

Acceleration (working at the year level above) Opportunities

Individual students will be offered acceleration where appropriate. This year we have a wide range of accelerated senior students in all 8 Learning Areas, where the student has demonstrated exceptional ability in that subject. In addition, Learning Areas may also offer tailored acceleration as below:

English:  The Level 1 Wide Reading achievement standard will be offered to all Year 10 students as an option, with stronger readers encouraged in particular. There will be a lunchtime tutorial in the library once a fortnight to support this. 

Maths: As is currently the case, 2-4 exceptional Year 9 students will be accelerated into Year 10 Maths in their first year at NGHS, based on Year 8 entry data. A small number of exceptional Year 10 mathematicians (around 6-8) will be accelerated into Level 1 Maths classes, based on testing at the end of Year 9.

Languages: Students who have prior knowledge of a foreign language may be accelerated. Students who have an advanced level of te reo Māori may be either extended within the course, or accelerated (in consultation with whānau, teacher and student).

Science: Year 10 students who participate in the extension work offered with noticeable success may be accelerated into a Level 2 Science course in Year 11.

Approximately 100 students are learning one or more subjects a year ahead.  There are numerous opportunities for students to challenge themselves in academic and vocational areas of interest.

​​​​​​​What will enrichment look like for Year 11, 12 and 13?

  • Acceleration in one or more subjects
  • Gateway and Star programmes
  • NZ Scholarship
  • Technical Institute Courses
  • Extramural University papers

Leadership Opportunities

  • Mentoring programme for junior students
  • Māori Achieve leadership
  • Year 13 prefects, peer support, clubs, teams,
  • Year 12 – Form class captains and deputies, bus prefects
  • Prep supervisor
  • Hostel committee representative
  • Regional Council Youth Programme


Learning Support

Here at Napier Girls' High School we also offer learning support for small groups and individuals as identified through testing and information provided by contributing schools, deans, teachers and parents.  

Parents and students can contact the Dean or Deputy Principal, Amanda Johnson (extn 213) to provide or seek more information.