Hero photograph
 
Photo by Kate Boyes

Physical Education and Sport Department

Ian Hilliard —

2017 has seen a number of changes within the Department and the structure of our classes. 

Jeanette Merrin has been an addition to the team along with Katrina Keenan as our Sport Coordinator.

As with other parts of the school the Department has had to adjust to the rebuild of the school. Consequently, we have had to shift our office and storage area. Now based in S Block since the start of the year the staff have worked well in the conditions of having to take all equipment for the class over to the gym and return it at the end of the period.

The new gymnasium is progressing well and we are looking forward to moving into the new space in May next year. Only 6 months to go.

This year the Department has continued to develop student peer and self- assessment. This has enabled students to become more aware of what they need to do to achieve at a higher level and participate in games with more skill. As part of this reflection students are creating an ongoing Blog of their time in class.

As well as creating a blog of their work Year 8 and Year 10 classes have been team taught by 2 or 3 teachers depending on the number of classes which have been combined. The emphasis this year has been to focus on the Key Competencies as set out by the NZ Curriculum. These being Thinking Skills, Understanding Text and Information, Relating to Others, Participating and Contributing and Managing Self. The students have worked as a group to determine what these competencies would look like in the physical environment and they decided in what contexts they would demonstrate these.

As a result the students have been more engaged with their work.

The Department again organised winter sport for these schools. Sports offered were Netball, Rugby League, Football and Hockey. The games were played each Friday afternoon. Teams were divided into a Year 5 & 6 and a Year 7 & 8 competition.

Our students were responsible for coaching and managing a team. Due to the number of team entries students who do not specialise in Physical Education have been offered the opportunity to also work in this programme.

Each student spent 20 minutes developing the players' skills before the team played another team in a competition here at Hornby High School. The students were also responsible for refereeing all the matches.