Background
Havelock North High School (HNHS) is a co-ed, decile 9, state school in Havelock North, Hawke's Bay. The school has a roll of around 1120 students. Since it was first taught at HNHS in 1999, technology has become particularly strong at the school and enjoys the same status as English, maths and science.
All year 9 students are organised into mixed ability groups for technology. They then move through four different technology focus areas, spending one term on each area with a different teacher. Details on how the year 9 technology course is structured and how the programme is organised to ensure progression will be documented in a case study at the end of the year.
Technology teacher Kate McLennan came to Havelock North High School three years ago. She has a Bachelor in Consumer and Applied Science from the University of Otago and completed her post graduate teaching diploma in Wellington.
Kate's Year 13 class had little prior knowledge of technology. Students were drawn from a Level 2 Home Economics class that had prior experience of one Food Technology unit of work. The class developed a meal to meet specific requirements, such as those of a diabetic client or an elderly one. None of the students had done Level 1 Food Technology and Kate says teaching the class was a challenge.
Kate: "The students had some experience of technology in Year 9, but they didn't appear to remember much of it. From a teaching perspective it was really hard... they needed to be driven all the time."
