Curriculum

The school is divided into two main syndicates:

• – Junior Syndicate: Years 0 – 4
• – Senior Syndicate: Years 5 – 8

Consistent with the New Zealand Curriculum Achievement levels, classes are usually composite in two-year groupings. We aim to ensure that all children are given the best possible opportunity to learn in a happy and safe environment. The intellectual, social, emotional and physical development of each child is given careful consideration when students are placed in class groups. All classes are non-streamed with class sizes kept to the lowest possible number.

Classes are identified according to the years the students have attended school. This national system provides for the continuous identification of classes throughout the years of compulsory schooling. From the start of the students’ first complete year at school, they will be in Year 1 and move on by year from there.

If a New Entrant begins after 01 July, they will complete that year as a New Entrant and be designated Year 1 at the start of the following year. In consultation with the parents, a decision can be made to alter designation for individual children if this is in the best interest of the student.

A strength of Seatoun School is that it provides a comprehensive full primary education. Students are not required to briefly change school prior to moving to secondary school and can instead enjoy the special family environment a local school provides. This stability can be important given the critical developmental period when change and instability is so much the norm.

This is a unique programme offered only to the Y7&8 students attending Seatoun School. In both depth and breadth this programme builds on what is offered in the earlier years. One full day each week is dedicated to small group learning, which encompasses and enhances the old Form One and Two technicraft programme.

The morning session is held at Rongotai College. Students are involved in a range of programmes taught by specialist secondary teachers and our own Y7&8 staff. The programme encompasses art, music, hard materials technology, design, second language learning, drama and computer studies