The St Marcellin Curriculum

St. Marcellin prides itself with a long tradition of quality education in a positive Catholic environment.

We have a clear Long Term Plan for Curriculum delivery and a timetable to ensure that we get a good coverage of the NZ Curriculum. Year 7 and 8 students also attend Cullinane College once a week for Technology which includes Digital Technology, Drama, Food Technology, Hard Materials, Music, Visual Art and Science.

We used a blended approach to ICT with students using both exercise books and devices. Students- in Years 5 - 8 have access to their own school provided Chromebook on a 1-1 basis. Students in Years 1 - 4 have access to class IPads with a range of learning apps.

The academic programme of the school is guided by the framework of the NZ Curriculum and adjusted reflect the special character of the catholic school and to support the needs of our students.    

Our structured literacy programme is  designed to teach the components of language,  phonemic awareness and reading comprehension strategies, which help underpin all other learning areas.

Student Assessment 

Principles of Assessment

Students are assessed on an ongoing and continuous basis.

• Continuous assessment and ongoing assessment are conducted in a variety of ways to determine whether the students are equipped to progress to the next level of complexity.

• Continuous assessment is also needed to identify students who require specific intervention support or enrichment and acceleration through particular areas of the curriculum.

• Continuous assessment does not mean daily tests but is simply a matter of being constantly aware of how students are developing and keeping a record of this development.

• Evidence of competence often emerges during daily classwork, for example, watching the student working in a group, listening to a learner explaining a concept etc. and making informed overall teacher judgements.

Assessment takes a variety of forms and is transparent i.e. the learner should have a clear understanding of what is being assessed and how.

Method of Assessment

Assessment methods include:

• Assessing oral discussions

• Assessing a practical task through observation, experiments, models

• Assessing understanding through role play

• Verbal questioning

• Written work

• Written reports of problem solving or investigations

• Tasks that target higher order thinking skills

• Creative, critical, analytical and communicative writing

• Graphical communication:  tables, graphs, diagrams, posters

• Extended projects

• Interviews

• Formal Assessments (STAR, PAT, Running Records/Probe Reading, E-asTTle)

Reporting

Reports are issued twice a year, in terms 2 and 4.

Other Feedback to Parents

In addition to contact initiated by teachers or parents, parents are invited to attend

Parent Teacher Meetings two times a year (In terms one and three).

Intervention: Learning Support Team

Students who are need additional support in specific learning areas will be supported 

by the SENCO, Learning Support Team and Teacher Aides.