a) Introduction

The English Faculty employs Teaching and Learning strategies for improving student achievement which plays a key role by providing opportunities for students to develop some of the Key Competencies while also helping to ensure equity of learning opportunities for all students regardless of ethnicity, ability or special needs. The faculty has devised specific strategies for the implementation of certain initiatives within English programmes.

b) Key Competencies

Thinking

Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas. These processes can be applied to purposes such as developing understanding, making decisions, shaping actions, or constructing knowledge. Intellectual curiosity is at the heart of this competency.
Students who are competent thinkers and problem-solvers actively seek, use, and create knowledge. They reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuitions, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions.

Using language, symbols, and texts

Using language, symbols, and texts is about working with and making meaning of the codes in which knowledge is expressed. Languages and symbols are systems for representing and communicating information, experiences, and ideas. People use languages and symbols to produce texts of all kinds: written, oral/aural, and visual; informative and imaginative; informal and formal; mathematical, scientific, and technological.
Students who are competent users of language, symbols, and texts can interpret and use words, number, images, movement, metaphor, and technologies in a range of contexts. They recognise how choices of language, symbol, or text affect people’s understanding and the ways in which they respond to communications. They confidently use ICT (including, where appropriate, assistive technologies) to access and provide information and to communicate with others.

Managing self

This competency is associated with self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners. It is integral to self-assessment.
Students who manage themselves are enterprising, resourceful, reliable, and resilient. They establish personal goals, make plans, manage projects, and set high standards. They have strategies for meeting challenges. They know when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently.

Relating to others

Relating to others is about interacting effectively with a diverse range of people in a variety of contexts. This competency includes the ability to listen actively, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas.
Students who relate well to others are open to new learning and able to take different roles in different situations. They are aware of how their words and actions affect others. They know when it is appropriate to compete and when it is appropriate to co-operate. By working effectively together, they can come up with new approaches, ideas, and ways of thinking.

Participating and contributing

This competency is about being actively involved in communities. Communities include family, whānau, and school and those based, for example, on a common interest or culture. They may be drawn together for purposes such as learning, work, celebration, or recreation. They may be local, national, or global. This competency includes a capacity to contribute appropriately as a group member, to make connections with others, and to create opportunities for others in the group.
Students who participate and contribute in communities have a sense of belonging and the confidence to participate within new contexts. They understand the importance of balancing rights, roles, and responsibilities and of contributing to the quality and sustainability of social, cultural, physical, and economic environments.

Strategies for implementation

The faculty will participate in PD which will focus on ways to align what happens in the English classroom with the demands of the key competencies.

c) Ensuring equity in curriculum delivery

The English Faculty has taken many steps to ensure equity in curriculum delivery.

The English courses are banded into two strata:

· English Enrichment– at Year 9 and 10 these courses are called GATE classes and in Years 11 -13 they are called English 01 courses. The advanced courses provide extension for those students performing consistently at a Merit/Excellence level. The courses include reading, writing, speaking, production experience and the study of literature. The 01 courses are assessed by Achievement Standards.

· English – Students in Year 9 and 10 who are in the mainstream courses study reading, writing, speaking, production experience and the study of literature.The mainstream English courses at Years 11-13 are called English 02 courses and they also include reading, writing, speaking, production experience and the study of literature. The 02 courses are assessed by a combination of Unit Standards and Achievement Standards.