Tauranga Intermediate

Tauranga Intermediate is an Intermediate school situated in Tauranga, New Zealand. It is the largest in the country, with over 1,200 boys and girls in 40 classrooms.

Curriculum

The TIS (Tauranga Intermediate School) curriculum comprises the following compulsory subjects: Maths, English, Social Sciences, The Arts, Information Technology (IT), Māori Language, Physical Education and Health, Sport, Research.

All pupils also take a technology course, consisting of a hands-on lesson one or two days per week. Over the year students will usually cover the following technology subjects: Drama, Dance, Music, Visual Art, Hard Materials, Electronics, Soft Materials and Cooking.

Students may also choose to take the following optional courses:

• Foreign languages- students can choose to participate in learning another language. In year 7 the choices are French and German; and in year 8 the choices are Spanish or Japanese. Students in the CWSA classes must do one language per year and also learn Mandarin (Chinese) for the two years they attend TIS. There are also four Māori language classes that offer Te Reo for three hours per week at level 4 immersion. Any student may opt into these classes as they wish.

CWSA Classes

Tauranga Intermediate has four CWSA (Children With Special Ability) or accelerate classes - two are year 8 classes and two are year 7. These classes make up Totara house, and are comprised by rooms 17,18 (year 7 classes) and 19,20 (year 8 classes). They are taught at an accelerate level (Level 4-5 of the New Zealand Curriculum) and are described as either gifted or talented. Considering that there are approximately 34 students per class of accelerate students, it can be concluded that Tauranga Intermediate has approximately a 1 gifted/talented student in 9 average students. (1200 ÷ (34x4)). Every student must take Mandarin lessons on a weekly basis so that every child has the opportunity to excel at a language.

Houses

Tauranga Intermediate, since the early days of the school, has had house groups which over the years have changed very much.

• In the 1980s there were four houses:

Matai, Rata, Rimu and Kauri.

• Sometime in the late 1990s two additional houses were created, these being Totara and Tawa.
• In 2006 3 new houses were created.
• In 2009 A new House Manuka was created

Miro, Tawa, Totara, Tanekaha, Matai, Kahikatea, Rata, Rimu, Manuka and Kauri.

House Colours:

Miro (Orange)
Tawa (Dark Blue)
Totara (Purple)
Tanekaha (Light Blue)
Matai (Yellow)
Kahikatea (Light Green)
Rata (Black)
Rimu (Red)
Kauri (Dark Green)
Manuka (Pink)^[1]

Kaka St. Satellite Class

Tauranga Intermediate currently run a special needs school in the next street from Tauranga Intermediate. Students there have severe learning disabilities. Room 39 is also a special needs satellite class on the Tauranga Intermediate school site. This class has a roll (as of the year 2006) of 14 students with mild to moderate learning disabilities. The class is staffed by two full-time teachers, two full-time teacher aides and one part-time teacher and one part-time teacher aide, creating a learning staff to student ratio of 5:14 at any one time.

The class's curriculum involves much the same as the base school, Kaka Street Special School - with a strong focus on life skills and skills required to live as independently as possible.

Multimedia Classes

The school currently has 4 multimedia computer classes in which children have their own Apple Mac. computer, the classes are designed for kids of the future. The children need to buy their own laptop but that doesn't limit the number of people wanting to go in.

The current principal is Brian Diver.

External links

• Tauranga Intermediate's school website
• Kaka Street Intermediate Satellite Class webpage

References