HOL: Hayley Christison
Teaching staff and specialties:
Hayley Christison (Senior English),
Nicole Reihana (Year 9-11 English, Literacy and Numeracy Co-ordinator),
Jessica Hume (Year 9-11 English)
Our staff bring a wealth of experience, knowledge and skills, to their teaching roles in the English Department. Our team is dedicated to improving the overall literacy of our learners, as well as fostering a love for literature and storytelling.
The study of English recognises and explores the ways in which language and literature can help build connections to others. Through interacting with texts from Aotearoa, and around the world, ākonga will come to understand the power that language and literature has to enrich and shape their own and others’ lives.
Language gives us a strong foundation for our identity and helps us to express ourselves and to connect with others. We also want all students to develop the literacy, communication, and interpersonal skills they need to access learning in other subjects and contexts.
English in Years 9 and 10 is about reading, writing, and exploring stories from Aotearoa and around the world. Ākonga study a range of texts each year - including a novel, poetry, short stories, film or drama, non‑fiction, and media/oral texts - and build reading fluency through shared and independent reading.
Students also learn how to create different types of writing and presentations, such as persuasive, discursive, creative, and essay writing. Throughout the course, students strengthen their grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary so they can communicate clearly and confidently. We use a paper‑first approach, with digital tools used when they support learning.
In NCEA English, we learn how literature is a shared journey that builds belonging, identity, and connection by engaging ākonga with texts from Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific, and the wider world. As they work with increasingly sophisticated oral, written, and visual texts, they grow as confident communicators who can form and express developed ideas, enabling them to participate thoughtfully and critically in their communities and the wider world.
Through English, ākonga can develop the literacy, communication, and interpersonal skills they need to access learning in other subjects and contexts. Studying English also develops the critical thinking and analytical skills that are valued in all subjects, tertiary study, and in many occupations.
All ākonga need certain literacy and language knowledge, skills, and attitudes to meet the reading and writing demands of the curriculum. All Learning Areas depend on ākonga being able to understand, respond to, and use a variety of written, oral and visual language to think about, locate, interpret, and evaluate ideas and information and to communicate with others.
Subject Selection Booklet - page 5
The English Department is always keen to collaborate with local authors, creators and whānau. Having guests such as poet Apirana Taylor visit us at kura brings poetry to life for ākonga, and shows us how powerful poetry and storytelling can be in our lives.
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