English Faculty

ENGLISH

Regardless of whatever else happened in 2020, it was a great year for reading, viewing and listening. During lockdown, Karamu English students were provided with the time and space to reflect on the world around them and make connections to their own lives. While dystopian literature has always been a popular genre for young adults, this year was an invitation into that world. As we emerged from lockdown, it was interesting to observe a newfound political awareness in many students. These experiences helped our students produce some fantastic writing at both junior and senior level. Like students throughout the country, we ‘made do’ a lot this year and had few opportunities to experience learning outside the classroom. However, in Term 1, 9KMA were able to travel to the Hastings Art Gallery to craft poetry in response to the “The Crescent Moon” and “Kamoan Mine” exhibitions. We were also able to welcome a visiting writer, Rose Lu, who came and shared writing strategies and extracts from her book All Who Live on Islands.

In Term 4 we were privileged to be a part of the pilot for the “Connect” initiative by Jo Morris and Hastings District Council. In this unit, Year 10 students were introduced to a range of older people from Hastings and invited to respond in video format. The unit was designed around the role technology plays in our lives and we look forward to seeing our student work exhibited next year. It was a year of highs and lows for the faculty members, with two staff members losing loved ones overseas to Covid 19 and a newborn entering the world shortly after lockdown. Like the rest of the school, we look forward to a more stable and exciting year in 2021: one where we connect meaningfully to our Hastings’ community and the wider world.

2020 has been a mixed bag in the Languages Faculty. On the positive side, we became a faculty this year and this gives us fantastic opportunities to both develop and expand languages at Karamu High School in the future. We also look forward to adding more languages in the coming years. great resilience in the way they dealt with this disappointment. In fact, since we couldn’t go to Japan in reality, we went through photoshop! Te Reo Maori students were similarly affected by Covid19 but we all look forward to being able to offer more opportunities outside the classroom next year.

On the negative side, it has been difficult to participate in the number of activities we usually are able to do. The 2020 Japan Trip was cancelled due to Covid19 but the students showed It is great to see the students confidence in Japanese and Te Reo grow every day. We are looking forward to a year full of opportunity next year.