Class Seven

“What I will carry into the world”

Puberty arrives and the balance is temporarily misplaced.  With puberty changes can occur quickly – the ‘child’ is less in evidence physically and, though the adults may differ in opinion, the pupils turning thirteen this year no longer experience themselves as children. 

They once again ask, ‘Who are you to tell me this?’  They may resent school and parental rules, would like to be independent, but do not yet have the ability to strike out on their own.  They wish to experience a new and larger world and express this in requests to explore the night life of the city, to frequent those places where their contemporaries ‘hang out’.  They often demand to change schools at this time, expressing a wish to escape the safety of the known world and to step into something that is ‘bigger and better’.

The Task

To look beyond the immediate horizon and begin a voyage of discovery that mirrors the students’ own development.  To present threshold pictures of bravery and sacrifice in daring to go beyond the known and to reflect upon the consequences of this. The great voyages of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries can be studied through biographies and the immense hardship of the journeys, and the effect these travellers had on the worlds they discovered can be investigated.  The arrival of the Renaissance, hard on the heels of this era, is in turn studied, especially the lives of Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.  The students will try their hands at copying these great masters and experience the beauty of form and colour that was their particular gift to the world.

Lessons that support this time include Astronomy and its developmental history. The lives of the astronomers and their discoveries are charted, Maths moves into Algebra and the secrets of finding answers when not all the information is to hand.  The English lesson ’Wish, Wonder and Surprise’ encourages the students to look beyond their own desires and view the greater needs of the world.  The students perform a play – a major presentation for the entire class.   The Class 7 camp takes the students into the great outdoors and teaches them basic bushcraft and survival skills in a wilderness environment.

  • Biographies of Great Deeds

  • History: The Age of Discovery

    English: Creative Writing: Wish, Wonder and Surprise

    Mathematics: Geometry; Algebra

    Astronomy: The sky as we see it

    Science: Physics, Chemistry – Mechanics

    Health and Nutrition: Growing up

    Drama

  • Art – Drawing, painting, crafts, perspective drawing

    Music

    Drama – From a Main Lesson

    Eurythmy

    Handwork – making a doll

    Handcraft – woodwork, carving

    Physical Education

    Gardening

    Maori

    Food Technology

    Cyber Civics