Three hours (periods) per week.

The Year 10 teaching and learning programme builds on the ideas and concepts from Year 9, with a more intensive approach to the examination of values, issues and perspectives in local, national and global settings.

The junior Social Studies programme prepares our students for a range of senior Social Science courses, including History and Geography. The topics taught combine themes, conceptual understandings and specific skills that meet the aims and objectives at Level 5 of the New Zealand Curriculum. We select case studies based on relevant and often topical issues, ensuring that we include physical geography, human geography, and historical stories. Contextualized settings maximise student engagement and relevancy. Student voice and annual feedback from teachers and students alike have set the themes and topics for the current curriculum. These topics are clearly identified in the start of year subject handouts given to and discussed with students in class.

UNITS OF WORK explore the impact of human activity on political, social and environmental landscapes through specific case studies in the past and in the present.

• My Precious – human interaction with and impact on selected global and local environments; access to resources; patterns and processes; geographic concepts. A case study on Antarctica and the Ross Sea provides the setting and context for the themes within this unit of work
• Conflict – exploring geopolitical issues, and strategies and processes for seeking justice through political and social actions. A case study on Somalia, the world's most 'fragile state', provides the setting and context for the themes within this unit of work.
• Crisis – examining the geographic processes and cultural outcomes of a significant natural disaster. A case study on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami provides the setting and context for themes within this unit of work.

ASSESSMENT offers opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of methods of communication with a view to building confidence and capacity as students move through to the senior Social Sciences learning environments.

• Research - gathering and processing source document material
• Values exploration
• Communication - formal writing
• Essential geographic skills
• Knowledge and understanding

FILM STUDY is an important audio-visual resource that complements aspects of our teaching units and supports our visual/kinesthetic learners.

Our teachers take great care when preparing our students for any film study, clarifying aspects of the story-line and identifying potentially challenging or ‘unpleasant’ moments in the film. We encourage students to make personal choices about whether they want to watch part or all of the film, and suitable alternative accommodations are found for students who do not wish to watch the film or wish to watch it in the company of their parents at home.

Films linked to specific units of work at Year 10:

My Precious - 'The Last Ocean' (documentary) looking at the impact of the fishing industry in the Ross Sea

Conflict – ‘Captain Phillips’ (film) looking at causes and effects of maritime piracy in Somalia

Crisis – ‘The Impossible’ (film) looking at the social and environmental effects of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

PROGRESSION: Social Studies prepares students for entry into the three Year 11 Social Science option subjects: Classical Studies, Geography, and History.

COURSE COSTS: There are stationery costs associated with this course. Please refer to the school stationery requirements list.