Background
Sue teaching her class
Parnell District School is a full primary in central Auckland city and had a 2009 roll of 409 pupils. The school is organised on a syndicate basis – students work in one of four syndicates – junior, Years 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8.
Technology education was introduced to the school in 2004 when the school decided to align their Technology education more closely with the New Zealand Technology Curriculum. Before this the Year 7 and 8 students had been sent to a provider-school, but there was little integration with the rest of the Year 7/8 programme and the students were spending much of their Technology time travelling. The initial Technology classroom was the old library, until a purpose-built room for Technology, Art and Science was opened in 2007.
Sue Lyons, who has a background in primary/secondary teaching and technology and was a relief-teacher at Parnell, was appointed to the new position and made responsible for Technology throughout the school. In addition to her educational experience, she is able to utilise her experience in technology which ranges from running a restaurant in Thailand for two years, working in the wardrobe/costume/art areas of the film industry on her return to New Zealand, and establishing her own business manufacturing shoes, which she ran for seven years.
Sue was charged with establishing Technology throughout the school, beginning with a Year 7/8 programme. The three intermediate classes attend Technology on a rotational basis and the timetable is structured to allow each two-week rotation to change over the year so that one class is not continually disadvantaged by being the first or last class working on a unit. The Technology room is often open at lunchtimes to allow students extra time to work on their projects.
For the first three years Sue concentrated on setting up a Year 7/8 programme and embedding the relatively new Technology curriculum before beginning what she describes as a slow infiltration into the middle and junior school. While that first Year 8 class hadn't really been exposed to the ideas and terminology of Technology, students are now coming through the school with a progressively increased knowledge and understanding each year.
Although the Year 7/8 classes receive funding for Technology, the school must cover the cost for teaching Technology to the other levels. When classroom release time (CRT) was introduced Sue proposed that she use this to teach Technology across the school, so that when teachers received their CRT she would take their classes for Technology – the time allocated to these classes varied depending on the CRT timetable.
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