Magazine Report - 2023

The department has continued its redevelopment of the ‘physical learning spaces in Upper Mt Sion. Creating a visually appealing learning environment has been an ongoing goal of the department. Student hand’s-on work is also a feature of creating a ‘fun’ as well as an educational learning environment.

Some major highlights of the year included Mr Chan’s Level 2 Geography Fieldtrip into various suburbs within the city to allow students to gather primary evidence showing a ‘variation of living standards’ across the city. The experience of seeing the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ became real when they saw some homeless people at a shopping area in one of the suburbs!

History continues to grow in the school with the addition of a Level 2 History course this year. This course delved into some history as well as some Classical Studies content which has also been missing as an option for the boys. Hopefully, this will lead to the addition of a Y13 History course in 2024!

Commerce also continues to flourish within the STC community. At Y11 there was a real focus on small businesses. Groups learnt some great accounting skills and how the money flows around the economy. At Y12, the highlight for the year was the selling of their ‘products’ in school. Valuable lessons on organisations and preparation were learnt from all groups. Sometimes what looks like simple activity can be quite complex or difficult to execute well. An appreciate for all small businesses selling goods has been learnt. At Y13 Business, coming up with a product idea that was innovative was the hard part. The brave task was asking to present to the whole staff the and pitch ideas and products was a challenge for some groups.

All in all, another fantastic year of Social Science learning based on the Department motto of “ako mā te pārekareka ki te mahi” (“Learn by Enjoying the Doing”)

SeYe Chan

Leader of Learning Social Science