The Social Sciences learning area is about how societies work and how people can participate as critical, active, informed, and responsible citizens. Contexts are drawn from the past, present, and future and from places within and beyond New Zealand.
- New Zealand Curriculum p.30 (2010).
Through the Social Sciences, students develop the knowledge and skills to enable them to: better understand, participate in, and contribute to the local, national, and global communities in which they live and work; engage critically with societal issues; and evaluate the sustainability of alternative social, economic, political, and environmental practices.
At Years 7-10, Aotearoa New Zealand History is taught in Social Studies, a Humanities subject that focuses on looking at society and human activity in the contexts of social control, social change, continuity and contemporary issues. Aotearoa New Zealand’s histories curriculum content supports this focus on critical citizenship – understanding the past to make sense of the present and to inform future decisions and actions. It focuses on stories of interactions across time that connect us to one another and to place. There are three big ideas; that Māori history is the foundational and continuous history of Aotearoa New Zealand, that colonisation and its consequences have been central to our history for the past 200 years and continue to influence all aspects of New Zealand society, and that the course of Aotearoa New Zealand’s history has been shaped by the exercise and effects of power. In this subject, students develop and apply skills as they investigate society, explore issues, make decisions and work co-operatively.
From Year 11 students can choose to study Classical Studies, Geography, History, and Travel and Tourism to Level 3. Scholarship is offered in Classical Studies, Geography and History.
Mr Brent Coutts
Head of Faculty, Social Sciences
[email protected]