As a school we are in favour of composite classes and this is our preferred T group organisation. Composite classes offer students many benefits including:
stability of teacher and Learning Centre over two years,
opportunities to learn and grow by working with older students when in the younger half of a composite
opportunities to take on more responsibility and leadership roles when in the older half.
However in 2019 we face exceptional circumstances regarding the year group sizes across the school with exceptionally large numbers in the junior and middle school compared with the senior school. This has been caused by the very large New Entrant intakes over the last few years due to all the housing development in Halswell.
Our guiding principle when deciding on school organisation is always what works best for all the children. For next year, this means having 7 Year 4 and 5 T Groups in the Otawhito Learning Team organised in single year levels. This organisation will allow us to overcome some of the timetabling issues of Y4/5 composites e.g Year 5 sport, camps etc and to reduce our Year 4 T group sizes slightly.
Our whole school organisation for 2019 is as follows:
Otumatua
3 - Y7/8 T Group
3 - Y6 T Groups
Otawhito
3 - Y5 T Groups
4 - Y4 T Groups
Orongomai
6 - Y2/3 T Groups
Huritini
6 - Y1/2 T Groups
Ahuriri
2 New Entrant T Groups + roll growth T Groups over the year.
Please note, this organisation is for 2019 only, and our long term aim is to return to composite classes across the school and preferably 4 learning teams of Y0-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 when numbers allow.