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, pupils 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:

MATRIX: Extension Mathematics

Extension Mathematics is so much more than giving exceptionally able mathematicians endless work out of a textbook. These students pick up concepts quickly and therefore need to be intellectually challenged. They are given opportunities to think deeply and to experience concepts in fun ways.

Channel 50:

At Channel 50, the focus is on the development of autonomous, self-directed learners. Pupils are taught how to solve problems or develop new ideas through a combination of divergent and convergent thinking.

Stretch - Extension Literacy

During Stretch classes, children are provided with literacy extension activities. They interact with like-minded children who have the same interests as they do. A big focus is exploring their creativity and imagination through presentations.

Future Problem Solving

Future Problem Solving is closely linked to the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). It reflects the Principles of the NZC and in particular provides a vehicle for exploring the Future Focused themes through problem solving.

Ethics Olympiad

The Ethics Olympiad provides schools with a unique opportunity to develop skills in critical thinking, collaboration and communication.  Students work as a team 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.

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.