Botany Downs Secondary College
Description
Botany Downs Secondary College, located in East Auckland, is a large, multicultural co-educational state school for Years 9 to 13 (ages 13 to 18 years) with almost 1900 students, 170 staff, and a decile rating of 9.
Opened in 2004, we have a modern learning environment which promotes 21st-century competencies.
Our college is founded on the whanau concept, with six “schools within a school” providing for the pastoral care needs of learners.
FEATURES
- Built for modern expectations of learning and teaching
- Built on the Wh?nau concept as the foundation of pastoral care for students
- Emphasis on both academic challenge and personal development, with proven success in national qualifications and the development of young leaders
- Support programmes for all students, including gifted and talented students, students with specific learning conditions, and those in need of literacy and numeracy remediation, including English as an Additional Language (EAL) support
- Information and Communications Technology (ICT) incorporated into the learning process focused on developing collaboration, communication and critical thinking, enabling self-paced, self-directed and anywhere-anytime learning
- Integrated thinking and learning curriculum, developing metacognitive processes, reflection and goal-setting
- Mentoring programmes, providing peer leadership and academic and career guidance
- Authentic and contextual learning opportunities
- Innovative teaching approaches from a dedicated, high-calibre staff
Using technology
We are a Microsoft Pathfinder school, and a Microsoft Mentor school. We have Wi-fi inside and outside the school so that you can access the internet, and intranet using our high-speed fibre optic broadband. All students need to bring a laptop with them when they come to study here so that you can access the learning resources that teachers provide.
Sporting, arts and cultural activities
At Botany Downs, we believe that being active, being involved, and being challenged is an intrinsic part of being a “kiwi kid”. Learning doesn’t just happen inside the classroom so we really encourage students to take part in our huge Co-curricular program.
Program
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Junior Curriculum, Years 9 - 10
Offering a broad range of courses to meet the needs of diverse students. We operate a 25-period weekly timetable for delivery of the curriculum (five one-hour periods from Monday to Friday). Alongside the regular curriculum is our Tutor Mentoring programme that promotes metacognitive approaches to understand how to learn and mentoring processes focused on reflection on academic goals and progress. This is supported by Year 12 and 13 students. The curriculum meets the requirements of the New Zealand Curriculum where the Key Competencies and Values are developed within the eight learning areas.
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NCEA
National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Levels 1 to 3 are offered. These have a mixture of internal assessments and external examinations.
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Pathways
Option Information is available, providing an overview of the senior pathways offered as well as course descriptions at each year level.
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Senior Curriculum, Years 11 – 13
Offering a broad range of courses to meet the needs of diverse students. We operate a 25-period weekly timetable for delivery of the curriculum (five one-hour periods from Monday to Friday). Alongside the regular curriculum is our Tutor Mentoring programme that promotes metacognitive approaches to understand how to learn and mentoring processes focused on reflection on academic goals and progress. The curriculum meets the requirements of the New Zealand Curriculum where the Key Competencies and Values are developed within the eight learning areas. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are integrated throughout the curriculum as well as provided as specialist Digital Technology classes from Years 11 to 13, emphasising design and programming.
