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Sharee Ineson and Noreen Melvin



Southland Girls’ High School

Invercargill, Southland • New Zealand




How our current school evolved What this curriculum plan meant for
The opportunity to create and structure a curriculum for SGHS
the addition of the new years to a high school was an The grid (see diagram 1) articulated our vision around
exciting challenge. building a base of inquiry learning for our students at
Southland Girls’ High School had been a Year 9 to 13 Year 7, with a clear outcome of creating independent
school, plotting the needs of young women in Southland, young women able to think critically and creatively and
the bottom end of the South Island of New Zealand, for take responsible risks through their time with us until
over 150 years. In the latter half of 2004, the Minister of their departure at the end of Year 13. Each level would
Education had completed a review of Invercargill schooling be charged with the development of a focus to build
and decided we were to become New Zealand’s first state towards this outcome. The intention of each level was to
secondary Year 7-13 girls’ school. be incorporated through all aspects of learning – through
a curriculum that linked subject, values, essential
This mandated change, that had to occur over a term and and thinking skills, and pastoral care and personal
a Christmas holiday break, inspired us to inquire, research development together. We presented this ‘dream’ many
and construct an innovative approach to the traditional times to interested members of the community.
Year 7 and 8 schooling of a New Zealand Intermediate
School and to create an inclusive and integrated whole Why habits of mind for year 7-13
school environment for girls. In other words, we did not
want to just simply attach two years on to our school as a We then went looking for the right person to flesh out
junior school. the Year 7 and 8 parts of the grid and contribute to this
whole school vision. In Sharee Ineson’s (our now Head
During the review time our dreams and visions of what our of Junior School) interview presentation she was able to
school could be were being hatched. We needed to add flesh out our grid with an approach to using the Habits
depth to our vision and set about visiting schools in New of Mind to give us a way to build a structure around that
Zealand and Australia to give us a research and evidence dream of learning, thinking and citizenship we had.
base for our thinking. Common threads began to evolve
alongside constant reading Hedley Beare’s Educating for Critically too for us, the Habits of Mind could unite the
the 21st Century and Creating The Future School, Louise school on a developmental learning path. They were as
Stoll – It’s About Learning and It’s About Time, and around applicable to younger students as to older students, to
discussion with the Secondary Futures group and draft our staff and our community, as we struggled with and
curriculum reviews in New Zealand. celebrated our new school.
Looking back now, lots of Habits of Mind were being The Habits of Mind have continued to grow as a shared
used, such as responsible risk-taking, remaining open language and learning that unifies the school and
to continuous learning, persisting and questioning, and reminds us of that bigger vision. “Not for school but for
posing problems. We just did not recognise it at the life we are learning” has always been the school motto
time. The Habits of Mind would later grow in importance – the Habits of Mind breathes new life to that charge,
as the flesh that built up and added depth to our skeletal challenging thinking for life in the 21st century.
framework. The nucleus of an idea of what we wanted The curriculum vision has been given substance, depth
came to fruition on the way back from our Melbourne and a clear path of progress through the use of Habits of
School visits. The sick bags from the aeroplane pockets Mind integrated but explicitly used throughout the school
were used to formulate a vision of schooling that in growing ways.
could incorporate all those ‘dreams’ of what we had
wanted, seen, experienced and researched. The idea of It is at its deepest level at Year 7 and 8 as we were
curriculum as an holistic learning journey came together able to structure it into learning at a Home Room level.
as we drew up on the bags the connections between a Over the last two years Habits of Mind have become a
bigger overarching learning focus for each level, which part of the Year 9 and 10 Future Thinking programme
would be developed over successive years, and would across curriculum areas and is becoming a larger part
encompass learning and thinking skills, curriculum of the thinking developments for Years 11 to 13. As we
reworked into learning packages of real interest, continue staff learning in the senior school, the ability for
leadership development for women and their growth Habits of Mind to create a unified direction for personal
as global citizens. This became known as “the grid”, a learning across the curriculum is growing.
skeleton for a vision of schooling from Year 7 to 10 and
beyond, our new junior school which would have around
700 students, 400 of whom were going to be new to the
school over the Christmas break.

Australian National Schools Network and Learning Network New Zealand • 25
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