Excellence
At Marsden we unashamedly aspire to excellence. This attribute is sought and recognised at an individual level where students aim to achieve their personal best. It is an attribute we aspire to in our teaching and learning, in the co-curricular life of the school and in the pastoral care of our students. We seek to inspire a love of learning which in turn helps students find academic excellence. There is a culture of ‘getting involved’ which means approx. 97% of students participate in co-curricular activities. This, combined with a competitive spirit, challenges students outside the classroom. A comprehensive leadership programme operates from junior years through to the highly sought after Senior School positions. Students have the opportunity to lead by example, create initiatives, mentor and act as role models. There is a great sense of pride among Marsden students and a sense of shared achievement. We celebrate our own successes and the success of others. Excellence is sought and achieved through the whole school experience.
Academic Excellence
Academic excellence is a Marsden tradition. We continue to fine tune our delivery to both maintain that tradition and to embrace the opportunities offered by new ways of learning. Our community has an expectation of top academic performances in external qualifications. We deliver programmes and provide support that enables our students to maximise their achievement.
Qualifications: We are committed to the NCEA qualification. Marsden Karori consistently ranks as a top performing NCEA school in NZQA statistics and Whitby is developing academic strength as the school roll grows. Merit and Excellence endorsements are highly sought after and student goal-setting reflects this. Some Cambridge International papers are offered as supplementary challenges at Year 12 at Karori and Scholarship is a goal for many of our Year 13 students. A paper outlining the Marsden response to the Cambridge qualification can be found here.
Programmes: Academic programmes at Marsden have been developed in line with the New Zealand Curriculum and cover the essential learning areas of the Arts, English, Health and Physical Education, Languages, Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences and Technology. In addition Religious Education, Positive Education for Well-being, Ethics and Learning Leadership are explicit programmes of learning at Marsden. Subject choices expand as students work their way up through the school. Students are encouraged to choose broad programmes that keep their options open. Support and guidance is available to help students who are unsure about the academic pathway that best suits their strengths and interests. Details of academic programmes can be found here:
Personalised programmes may be developed to meet the needs of students in special circumstances, such as academically challenged or advanced students, elite sportswomen, individuals transitioning to the workplace or transferring students (local and international).
Future Minds is a gifted and talented education programme that focuses on students in Years 7 to 10. Through a range of challenging activities our most able students have the opportunity to explore and develop their thinking outside the classroom.
External competition is encouraged and supported. The ICAS competitions are offered through until Year 11. Examples of recent Marsden successes include: Goethe Language competitions- regional and national winner; Chinese language competition - regional and national winner; French language competitions – regional winners; Brain Bee neuroscience competition – national and international winner; Irish essay competition – national winner.
Technology
Our Future Learning Strategy (FLS) is focused on exploring ways of enhancing learning through technological capability. Students have individual log-ins and are able to access the Marsden virtual campus and their own files from home or other remote locations. They are encouraged to be both users and creators of technology. FLS projects are exploring technological possibilities such as individualised learning systems and cross-campus learning (Karori and Whitby). Our Ultranet learning management system is widely used. It is a valued storehouse for resources, an interactive workspace and an important communication system. The popularity of Ultranet has enabled us to substantially reduce our printing of paper-based resources.
SOLO taxonomy (Structured Overview of Learning Outcomes)
We are adopting school wide approach to making learning and learning outcomes more visible to students through the implementation of SOLO. The foundations will be laid in 2012 with Year 9, but in the meantime, teachers are exploring its possibilities across year levels. Through SOLO independent thinking is encouraged as well as helping students understand the way more sophisticated thinking is developed.
Portfolios
We are in the early stages of adopting e-portfolios. These include possibilities for the showcase portfolio (to celebrate learning outcomes and shows highest level of achievement); the process portfolio (to support students towards achieving learning goals) and the accountability portfolio (learning for achievement of specific outcomes of standards). At junior levels these are well underway and their application in the languages classroom has become increasingly significant.