EXTENSION PROGRAMMES
Specialist Extension Opportunities at He Tīwai Māturanga Heaton Intermediate School 2024
This year we will be offering a range of exciting extension opportunities for learning in specialist subjects. These classes will be taught by our talented and skilled specialist teachers and a range of experts from outside of our Kura. These classes will be offered to Year 8 students and selection will be based on a range of criteria but fundamentally their performance and attitude to learning during Year 7.
Specialist subject extension will take place on Tuesday afternoons throughout the year but will be timetabled around summer and winter sports competitions, and other school-wide events that take place during this time.
Students will be working towards a specific goal, outcome, or competition in each of the subject areas. Your child will be contacted by the teacher in charge of the extension programme that they have been selected for and a notice will be sent home so their place can be confirmed for the 2024 extension.
Students will work on Tuesday afternoons from 5th March for at least 10 weeks. They will have the opportunity to experience working on the pottery wheel.
The group will work towards entering the Speaking for the Planet Visual Art Competition. Students who are finalists in this competition will be expected to attend the prize-giving later in the year.
All students will learn how to read and research the design brief and develop and present their ideas.
There will be several other competition opportunities, as well as some collaborative projects and a group outing. Students are encouraged to also work on a personal project and will be expected to develop their ideas in their own time.
This programme is for Year 8 students who have exhibited a passion for visual art previously in class and Art Club.
Students will be preparing to compete in the 2024 Robocup Online Competition. They will be supported in small teams to design and build a robot to enter one of the following categories; Art, Self-Driving Car, Helper Bot, Biomimicry or the Open Category.
The digitech extension programme will begin on Tuesday 19th March. Students will have 12 sessions with a robotics expert from Cyclone Computers to perfect their robots and be ready to submit their video entries by 27th September 2024.
The programme is open to 16 Year 8 students. The students invited to participate in this programme displayed a passion for digital technology during the Year 7 specialist rotation and demonstrated creativity, computational thinking, an ability to work with others and resilience.
Heaton students have several opportunities for literacy extension at Heaton. The Future Problem Solving (FPS) team is an overall extension literacy opportunity for both Year 7 and Year 8 students. It is an international competition that employs research, creative thinking, reading, and writing skills.
External masterclass writing opportunities are provided by the Write On School for Young Writers. Year 7 and Year 8 students are offered daylong writing classes on a variety of topics throughout the year. All writing can be submitted to the Write On Magazine, Toitoi or other publications.
Extension speech opportunities are available through the school speech competition, with finalists being promoted to the Rotary Speech Competition and the Intermediate Schools Speech Competition in Term 3. Speaking 4 the Planet is also a speech extension programme related to Write On Masterclasses with speeches and spoken word poetry options.
Reading extension opportunities include participation in the International Kids’ Lit Quiz, a literary competition that celebrates books and reading. Two Heaton teams take part in the Canterbury regional heat in March, with the possibility of attending the national final in Wellington, and then maybe even the World Final!
Author talks are an integral part of reading extension every year. Year 7 and Year 8 students can self-select to attend high-interest talks by published authors.
Students may also opt to participate in book clubs in the library at Interval. These book clubs are student-led and provide an opportunity for students who love reading to hang out with like-minded peers to discuss books, share some book recommendations, and maybe gain some special book privileges.
Heaton Intermediate participates in the Future Problem Solving Global Issues Problem Solving (GIPS) Competition. This extension literacy programme for Year 7 and Year 8 students develops creative thinking, reading, writing & research skills. Students engage in deep learning as they grapple with existing or emerging international issues.
FPS students learn a multi-step process to complete a problem booklet. There are two practice problems (one per term) before the competition in Term 3, called the ‘Qualifying Problem’. Teams who score well are invited to the national competition, with the winning team receiving an invitation to the international competition held in the U.S.A.
FPS teams meet in Te Kāmata (the Library) one morning per week.
Students involved in the hard materials extension programme will plan, design and build a GaGa pit for our school. This will be extra playground equipment for all students now and in the future to enjoy.
Students will be required to investigate various materials and their costs to make informed decisions about the choices for the project. Students will engage in elements of geometry maths such as measuring and working out angles. They will also be involved in the building aspects of the project; completing the groundwork preparation and constructing the GaGa pit. Students will be involved in all aspects of the project.
This extension opportunity will take place on Tuesday afternoons, starting from March 5th and run for at least 10 weeks, outside other scheduled events such as winter and summer sports.
Students invited to participate in this learning extension opportunity showed both design capabilities and practical ability in hard materials during their Year 7 rotation of work. They also proved themselves with a positive work ethic and the ability to work productively in collaborative situations.
Designed to challenge and inspire, this program invites students to delve deeper into the captivating realm of mathematics. Every Monday and Wednesday, for an hour, a specialist maths tutor leads sessions tailored to expand horizons and develop problem-solving skills.
Participants in this program not only sharpen their mathematical acumen but also have the opportunity to showcase their talents on a broader stage. From this select group of students, four students in each year level will form our prestigious Cantamath Team, representing our school with pride and excellence at the Cantamath competition in term 3.
Students are nominated for this opportunity by their classroom teachers. They then sit additional testing based on calculating, problem-solving, patterns, and general number knowledge.
This program will run in terms 1,2 & 3.
Students will have the opportunity to work in small groups to design and undertake a scientific investigation. All students will take part in pilot studies to solve a scientific question. If their initial results are of scientific interest then they will receive additional time and tutoring to prepare a display for the Canterbury Science Fair.
Students who are invited to participate in this learning extension opportunity showed a high level of effort and achievement during their Year 7 rotation of work.