Aspiring Centre

At Somerville, we are fortunate to have an Aspiring centre that caters for both gifted and talented children, as well as children who need extra support.

Extension Programmes

The extension classes give the gifted and talented children the opportunity to be involved in advancement classes to further enhance their skills and abilities. It is important that all students be given the opportunity to expand their knowledge base and further nurture their special talents to allow them to develop to their full potential.

During these programmes, students get the opportunity to interact with like minds where they get to challenge each other's capabilities, as well as motivate each other.

The following classes are offered as extension programmes:

  • Students who show exceptional ability in mathematics are selected for Matrix classes, where they are challenged to think deeply as they develop and apply new knowledge and skills across a range of learning experiences. These students also compete in mathematics olympiads.

  • These classes involve the explicit teaching of literacy and critical thinking skills at a Year 9 and 10 level. Students will apply these skills through a variety of projects and assignments. The focus is on the development of autonomous, self-directed learners.

  • For our passionate and able writers, these classes offer a chance to further develop their skills and personal voice. They are challenged to write for a variety of purposes and audiences.

  • The Ethics Olympiad provides schools with a unique opportunity to develop skills in critical thinking, collaboration and communication. Students work as a tea to analyse and discuss real-life and timely, ethical issues. They respond to the questions and critique their own and others’ arguments. Judges award points on the basis of clear, concise, critical and collaborative thinking.

  • During these sessions, students are taught a variety of skills and then given a chance to work through scenarios designed to promote science, engineering and problem solving. Teams are selected to compete in a whānau competition.

STEPS - Literacy and Numeracy support

STEPS: stands for Strategies To Elevate the Performance of Students. The STEPS support programmes cater for individual learning needs and are geared towards supporting individual students' learning goals and areas of focus in literacy and numeracy.

English for Speakers of Other Languages

The ESL programmes are designed for students for whom English is not their first language. These children are identified and withdrawn from their classes to receive English support. The class sizes are small to allow for individualised teaching sessions.