Extension Programmes

Specialist Extension Opportunities at He Tīwai Māturanga Heaton Intermediate School

This year, we will be offering a range of exciting extension opportunities for learning in specialist subjects. These classes will be taught by our talented and skilled specialist teachers and a range of experts from outside of our kura. These classes will be offered to Year 8 students, with selection based on a range of criteria, but fundamentally on their performance and attitude to learning during Year 7.

Specialist subject extension will take place on Tuesday afternoons throughout the year, but will be timetabled around summer and winter sports competitions and other school-wide events that take place during this time.

Students will be working towards a specific goal, outcome, or competition in each subject area. Your child will have been contacted by the teacher in charge of the extension programme that they have been selected for, and a notice will be sent home by the end of the year to confirm their place in the extension class.

Students will work on Tuesday afternoons for at least 10 weeks. They will have the opportunity to experience working on the pottery wheel.

The group will focus on working to a specific design brief, learning how to research, develop, and present their ideas to a high standard.

There will be opportunities for collaborative projects, a group outing, and showcasing their work. Students are also encouraged to work on a personal project and will be expected to develop their ideas in their own time.

This programme is for Year 8 students who have exhibited a passion for visual art previously in class and Art Club.

15 Year 8 students participated in the Digitech extension programme. The students invited to participate in this programme displayed a passion for digital technology during the Year 7 specialist rotation and demonstrated creativity, computational thinking, an ability to work with others and resilience.

Students prepared to compete in the 2024 Robocup Online Competition. They built a robot to enter one of the following categories; Self-Driving Car, Helper Bot, Biomimicry or the Open Category.

The digitech extension programme ran for 12 sessions, led by a robotics expert from Cyclone Computers. Students placed 2nd in the Self-Driving Car category and 3rd in the Biomimicry category.

Heaton students have several opportunities for literacy extension. The Future Problem Solving (FPS) programme is an overall extension literacy opportunity for both Year 7 and Year 8 students. It is an international competition that employs research, creative & logical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

External masterclass writing opportunities are provided by the Write On School for Young Writers. Year 7 and Year 8 students are offered day-long writing classes on a variety of topics throughout the year. All writing can be submitted to the Write On Magazine, Toitoi or other publications.

Extension speech opportunities are available through the School Speech Competition, with finalists being promoted to the Rotary Speech Competition and the Intermediate Schools Speech Competition in Term 3. Speaking 4 the Planet is also a speech extension programme related to Write On Masterclasses, offering speeches and spoken-word poetry options.

Reading extension opportunities include participation in the Kids’ Lit Quiz, an international literary competition that celebrates books and reading. Two Heaton teams take part in the Canterbury regional heat in March, with the possibility of qualifying for the National Final in Wellington, and then maybe even progressing to the World Final (a Heaton team achieved 2nd place in the World Finals Kids’ Lit Quiz in 2026!).

Author talks are an integral part of reading extension every year. Year 7 and Year 8 students can self-select to attend high-interest talks by published authors.

Students may also opt to participate in book clubs in the library at intervals. These book clubs are student-led and provide an opportunity for students who love reading to hang out with like-minded peers to discuss books, share book recommendations, and maybe gain some special book privileges.

Heaton Intermediate participates in the Future Problem Solving (FPS) Global Issues Competition, an international research-based academic programme. This extension programme for Year 7 and Year 8 students combines problem-solving strategies, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, literacy skills, and effective communication. Students explore up to 4 real-world issues and apply the FPS 6-step problem-solving method.

Teams that score well in the Term 3 “Qualifying Problem” are invited to the national competition, with the winning team receiving an invitation to the international competition held in the U.S.A.

FPS teams meet in Te Kāmata (the Library) one morning per week.

Students involved in the hard materials extension programme will plan, design and build a project that will investigate various materials and their costs so as to make informed decisions about their project. Students will engage in elements of geometry maths, such as measuring and working out angles, as well as practical skills needed for hard materials projects.

This extension opportunity will take place on Tuesday afternoons and run for at least 10 weeks, outside other scheduled events such as winter and summer sports.

Students invited to participate in this learning extension opportunity showed both design capabilities and practical ability in hard materials during their Year 7 rotation of work. They also proved themselves with a positive work ethic and the ability to work productively in collaborative situations.

Designed to challenge and inspire, this program invites students to delve deeper into the captivating realm of mathematics. Every Monday and Wednesday, for an hour, a specialist maths teacher leads sessions tailored to expand horizons and develop problem-solving skills.

Participants in this program not only sharpen their mathematical acumen but also have the opportunity to showcase their talents on a broader stage. From this select group of students, four students in each year level will form our prestigious Cantamath Team, representing our school with pride and excellence at the Cantamath competition in Term 3.

Students are nominated for this opportunity by their classroom teachers. They then complete additional testing based on calculating, problem-solving, patterns, and general number knowledge.

This program will run throughout the year.

Students will have the opportunity to undertake a set of Lab challenges to encourage thinking in creative ways to solve problems and seek answers to questions. This will apply their creative thinking and mathematical skills to different areas of science.

Students who are invited to participate in this learning extension opportunity showed a high level of effort and achievement during their Year 7 rotation of work.