1609 Social Sciences - 21 September 2016

Curriculum Report – Social Sciences

Essence Statement

• • The Social Sciences is about how people in a society work and contribute to the world.  It considers the roles and responsibilities of members of a society.  Study in this area gives students an understanding of their role in society and how their actions can affect and impact on the world.  

  • Students engage with societal issues through active reflection and evaluation as they explore social, economic, political and environmental practices.  In order to understand themselves, students need to understand their place in society and how society impacts on their own lives.

Social Sciences at Kaikohe East School

• • The study of the Social Sciences at our school involves an understanding of yourself, your place in your community and your culture.  It provides opportunities to study topics related to the local community and encourages students to respectfully utilise traditional and contemporary Maori contexts.

  • Students will be encouraged to draw on their own cultural experiences to make connections with the context being studied. Our unique school environment should provide for rich authentic contexts for learning in social sciences.  The social science programme gives the students rich, meaningful and relevant experiences to develop and enhance their view of the world.

Programme

• • Term 1 2016: Whanaungatanga- Identity/ Pepeha

  • Term 2 2016: Manaakitanga/ Kaitiakitanga

  • Term 3 2016: Olympics

  • Term 4 2016: Community Involvement

Above are the overarching themes our teachers have been guided by. Teachers provide experiences to provoke curiosity within but not limited to these themes. Learning is based on student interest and questions that they have.

Assessment Procedures

• • Currently we do not have a standardized assessment of this curriculum area. In terms of assessment, we use more informal assessments such as observations, conversations and classroom documentation to gauge the students learning. This is so that teachers can be guided by what the students interests are.

Looking Ahead

• • Since Kaikohe East School is now part of the PB4L programme, we are looking ahead to remarking our school values and possibly changing some of the wording so that it makes more sense to our children and whanau, reflecting the culture of our school and community. This will be done in consultation with staff, whanau and children and be guided by school values. We hope that this in turn will then reflect directly back to the learning of Social Sciences and positive behaviours we want our children leave Kaikohe East School with.