Academic Terms and 'Other Learning Stuff' Explained

By Nick Leith | Posted: Tuesday February 9, 2021

At Casebrook we aim to make our learning accessible for our students and their whānau. To do this we have tried to streamline how everything works in our timetable, as well as across the year. All this will have a minimal impact on a parent's life but here is our best effort to explain some of the things that you might hear about from your (highly communicative) child.

Academic Terms:

We are going to be basing our teaching and learning around three themes this year - 

Academic Term 1: Relationships

Academic Term 2: Function

Academic Term 3: Change 

These will run across 3 'Academic Terms' (approx 13 weeks long).  Essentially, spreading the three academic terms over the four school terms. We will be celebrating the learning at the conclusion of these academic terms with a display of all the learning from classrooms. The dates for these will be on the Casebrook community calendar as they are finalised.

The Timetable:

8.35am : Time to be in class

8.40am : Homeroom and admin time

8.50am : Tech and Specialist programme - Year 8

9.50am : Year 7 maths

10.50am - 11.10am: INTERVAL

11.10am :  Tech and Specialist programme - Year 7, Year 8 maths,

1.10pm  - 1.50pm : LUNCH (on Tues 12.30 - 1.30pm to enable sport)

1.50pm - 2.50pm : Afternoon learning (includes Inquiry and extension/enrichment programmes)

Technology and Specialist Programmes:

Each student will experience specialist teaching in the following areas in 2021:

Tech Programme: Hard Materials, Food and Garden, Digital Technologies

Specialist Programme: Art, Science, Health & Te Reo

Casebrook Challenge:

This runs termly so students will have four Casebrook Challenges to complete across the year. Students aim to complete 20 challenges to achieve a gold badge each term. We will run four celebrations over the year to award badges. 

This will be discussed in greater detail at our Meet the Teacher Evening on Tuesday 16th February.

Seesaw:

We use Seesaw online portfolios to connect whānau with learning in the classroom. Our students tend to avoid talking in great depth about what they are learning so its much easier seeing for yourself. Seesaw is pretty common in NZ schools nowadays so you may have already used it at your child's previous school. More info will be coming home once classroom routines are up and running. 

The way we structure learning enables all the amazing opportunities that take place in our school each year. If you have any further questions don't hesitate to contact your child's classroom teacher, once the dust settles and new routines are established. 

Nick Leith

Deputy Principal