Background
St Kentigern College in Pakuranga, Auckland, is an independent co-educational Presbyterian school with over 1,600 students. Students at middle school level (Years 7-10) are taught in single-sex classes, and seniors (Years 11-13) in co-educational classes.
Food Technology and Soft Materials Technology were introduced in 2003, the first year that girls were admitted to the school. A purpose-built Art and Technology block was opened that year to accommodate the extra classes and students.
In 2005, Technology teachers started working on a collaborative approach to ensure all students covered the same technological practice. As they mapped out what students should be learning through each curriculum level, they worked together to transfer all their individual units into a standard departmental format.
All Year 7/8 students now have a semester working in each domain (Food, Soft Materials, Hard Materials, Electronics and Control) over two years. At Year 9 around half the students are new to the school, and may need to learn or re-learn some baseline skills or knowledge. All Year 9s have a term working in each domain, and Year 10s choose two domains to work in over the year.
Food Technology teacher Carolyn Norquay originally worked in banking, then decided on a change in career; she completed a Bachelor of Education at the University of Auckland and started teaching Home Economics. Her move to St Kentigern College to teach Food Technology coincided with the introduction of NCEA Achievement Standards in Technology. Carolyn says she started teaching a mixture of both subjects "hanging on to what I knew", although she now teaches Technology through all the levels. "Things aren't static," she says, "there is always so much to learn in Technology".
