In Week 8 a new teacher joined our Intermediate team. Whaea Tamlyn has joined the team as the third Intermediate teacher, together with Hevaha and I.
After the first lockdown, Hevaha and I trialled subject teaching- with me doing Reading for both classes and Hevaha doing Mathematics with both classes. This proved to be very successful. With the addition of Whaea Tamlyn, our two classes were split into three classes - one class of year 7's, one class of year 8's and a year 8 class combined with very capable year 7 students; so our two classes became three....
I will continue to do the Reading for all students, Hevaha continues to do Mathematics and Tamlyn does all the Writing with each of us taking our base class for Inquiry (Genomics). The students were fantastic by how they embraced another change and made Whaea feel welcomed.
This meant that with smaller classes (+/- 16 students per class) students are able to receive a more intensive, specialised approach to fill gaps that were caused by missing a significant amount of school due to COVID-19. It is also an awesome opportunity to get our Year 8 students ready for high school.
