Howick College has a head start on implementing new curriculum

Howick College has been at the forefront of implementing individualised learning for its ESOL students for the last five years.

When it came time to update its Language Support Department the school invested in a self-access area with a computer pod and resources for students to have personalised programmes.

The head of department, Mrs Kathryn Parker, took a year on a Royal Society Teacher Fellowship to study self-access centres in tertiary institutions in NZ and around the world and later completed a thesis on the subject.

She said it had not been easy for teachers to adjust their teaching style in the beginning but they were making wonderful progress now and had come up with many different ideas to make the opportunity work for their classes.

As well as operating for a number of support classes the centre is also used to help individual students who may have limited needs or for senior students who want to improve certain aspects of their language.

The centre is also shared by ESL students using it as a computer pod, correspondence students studying Chinese and two students every period doing the programme “Fast ForWord” which helps students who may have dyslexia or other reading gaps.

The school’s Korean advisor, Helen Jin, issues resources to students but teachers are timetabled in to the centre as often as possible.

Sonja Petkovic, one of the teachers using the centre says, “It’s exciting to be on the cutting edge of teaching and being able to implement one of the Key Competencies of the new curriculum “Managing self.”