Year 7 Team In 2021, the Year 7 Syndicate welcomed Isaac Leota. Mr Leota is an Old Collegian and has just completed his first year of his teaching career. He brought many skills to the team and was an effective specialist teacher. Mr Leota will be teaching a full‑time Year 3 class in 2022. At the start of the year, we welcomed 50 new students who transitioned into Year 7 from a variety of contributing schools. The beginning of year transition programme for all students included a learn to surf day at Sumner, a day at Adrenalin Forest, and a team building day run by Sport Canterbury. All students participated actively in the activities and new friendships were formed. Many other year group activities were included in Term 1 to ensure a culture of respect and inclusivity was created. In Term 1 all students were introduced to the new Preparatory School Pastoral Care Values system, StAC-UP. This helped the students to be more aware of expectations and acceptable and appropriate behaviour. StAC-UP has been integrated into all areas of the Year 7 curriculum. During the Term 3 lockdown the Year 7 staff and students embraced the situation and continued to run effective classroom programmes using a variety of learning tools and technology. The daily plan for students was run using OneNote and Microsoft Teams and included interactive quizzes, online video meetings and a wide range of other learning.
The Travellers programme was run twice throughout the year for Year 7 students. This 10-week withdrawal programme helps equip students with the skills to deal with life’s ups and downs. The Year 7 team also worked alongside Anneke Kamo completing EV3 Robotics programmes to help embed the Digital Technology curriculum. This will continue to be a focus for 2022. In Term 4 the Year 7 students were very lucky to be able to attend camp at Living Springs. We travelled as a whole year group and spent two nights away from home. The students showed great perseverance to be able to walk the 14km from the Sign of the Kiwi into Living Springs. Once at camp they participated in five different activities. These included mountain biking, tree climbing, adventure stream, archery tag, and camping skills. It was great to see many new friendships formed, and behaviour during camp was excellent. The Year 7 students of 2021 have been a pleasure to work with. They have been focused, enthusiastic and high achieving, both in and out of the classroom. They have made the most of the new opportunities available to them at Year 7 and I look forward to seeing their progress as they move through the College. Kelly McBride Year 7 Team Leader
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