Streaming
In the Prep School there is one class streamed as the Top class in both Year 7 and Year 8. The other two or three classes at each Year level are not streamed. The streaming is based on information gained from testing on Orientation Day and from the student’s previous school.
In Year 9 students are placed in a Mathematics class based on their Entrance Test and the information we gather from contributing schools. This class also becomes their core class for Science and Social Studies. English is streamed separately into A, B and C bands. In Mathematics, the top five classes follow the University of Cambridge International Examinations Lower Secondary Mathematics programme and the other three classes follow the New Zealand Curriculum for Year 9.
The students in the top English classes are expected to also study a second language as one of their options. French or Japanese are the most common choices.
In Year 10 the classes are streamed on the basis of the Mathematics progress made in Year 9. The top 5 classes start preparing for the Cambridge IGCSE which is taken in Year 11. The other classes follow the New Zealand Curriculum in preparation for NCEA Level 1 which is assessed in Year 11. There is enough overlap between the two courses in Year 9 to allow a strong student in one of the lower classes to transfer successfully into the IGCSE programme which begins at the start of Year 10.
The English classes in Year 10 are streamed in the same way as in year 9.