Earlier this term, a group of Year 10 students held an exhibition to showcase the knowledge and skills that they had gained through our connected curriculum in Term 1.

Students in 10HSC used ‘Nuclear Free NZ’ as the theme for their first connected showcase of the year. Students were tasked with coming up with an idea for a way that they could take action, be a change maker and promote Nuclear Free NZ. They could do this by placing themselves either in the 1980s, in the time of nuclear free protests and the Rainbow Warrior tragedy, or in the now to ensure that the message was still out there promoting why we need to keep our Nuclear Free stance here in Aotearoa. We gave no set guidelines other than that students needed to be able to explain the purpose of their action and how it would be effective. There was an incredible range of ideas that students explored and created. This provided students with the opportunity to utilise strengths and interests that they may otherwise not have had a chance to use in our usual classes. We had everything from board games, badges, clothing designs, magazine articles and even a heavy metal song and supporting video clip – all of which had a message of support for a Nuclear Free NZ.

The learning that students engaged in leading up to this showcase included learning about how scientists develop their ideas, and how atomic theory led to the creation of atomic power and weapons. In English, ākonga spent time investigating the language of protest. They came up with a list of persuasive language techniques and then learnt how to analyse examples of these language techniques to explain how the creators of the text made meaning and persuade a specific audience. And in Social Studies, ākonga evaluated the effectiveness of protest through investigating several significant protests or social action campaigns in our nation’s history.

Whānau and friends were invited to view our exhibition and we were honoured to host our special guests John Minto and Bronwen Summers who came along to support our kaupapa and celebrate the pieces of work that our students created to demonstrate different ways of promoting social action. John and Bronwen had such positive feedback to give to our students and encouraged them to continue to take action to stand up for what they believe in. It was an honour to have a real change maker amongst us, who has had such significant impact on promoting social action in New Zealand.