Bream Bay College

Junior Diploma

Bream Bay College assesses its Year Seven to Ten students using a Junior Diploma comprised of 206 credits where half come from content assessment and half from assessment against the key competencies. Students have a practice year in year Seven and are awarded diplomas in years Eight, Nine and Ten. Students need to pass their Junior Diploma at year Eight, Nine and Ten to move to the following year levels. Grades criteria for the content taught and competencies will be: achieved - basic facts and recall; merit - application, synthesis, analysis etc., and excellence - real flair, applying to the unknown or knowing absolutely everything. The rationale for the Junior Diploma is the promotion of good learning practices through the explicit use of the key competencies; striving for excellences by having merit and excellence diplomas, merit and excellence endorsements in subjects and a 100 plus club. The College’s computer administration system is setup to show the students report in real time and analysis with predictions of levels of success in real time. The gaining of credits is the recognition of added value through learning while the merit and excellent awards are recognition of quality of learning.  

Bream Bay College Junior Diploma

• All students in Years 7 – 10 will work towards gaining a Junior Diploma
• All subjects will be broken up into sections that gain credits when passed
• Credits will assigned to Knowledge and Key Competencies (KC). Students will be assessed against these during the year
• Simply put:          Knowledge credits         =       content studied                         KC credits                      =       how students study and learn

• Diplomas will be awarded to students at the end of Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10
• Students who do not gain a Diploma will be held back for another year at that level

Credits

• Students gain credits in each subject for the content and the key competencies covered during the year. In year 7 & 8 KCs are combined for core subjects.

Year 7 & 8					Year 9 & 10
Credits per year					Credits per year
Subject	Hours Per week	Content	Competencies		Subject	Hours Per week	Content	Competencies
Health	1	4	0		English	4	14	14
English	6	19	0		Maths	4	14	14
Maths	5	16	0		Science	3	12	12
HR KCs	0	0	49		Soc St	3	12	12
Science	2	12	12		PE	2	12	12
Soc St	3	12	0		Option 1	3	12	12
PE	2	12	12		Option 2	3	12	12
Maori	1	4	6		Option 3	3	12	12
Art Music Drama / Dance	.66 .66 .66	3 3 3	3 3 3
Computing Fabrics Materials Food	.5 .5 .5 .5	3 3 3 3	3 3 3 3
Sport	1	0	0
TOTAL	25	100	100		TOTAL	25	100	100

Note:

• Year 9 options – there are 3 cycles of 2 options, including Health. Each option at Year 9 would have a value of 1/2 of a full year course’s credits – i.e. 6 credits.
• Year 10 options are full year courses and each has 12 credits.
• Health is delivered as an option at years 7 to 9 and by way of Jumbo Days in year 10.

Credits Required to Achieve a Diploma

• In year  7 & 8 the first year  is a practice year. The diploma is awarded on the results of year 8. It takes one year to complete the year 9 diploma and one year to complete the year 10 diploma

	Junior Diploma Year 7 & 8		Junior Diploma Year 9 & 10
Credits	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9	Year 10
Subject credits	200	200	200	200
Bonus credits	6	6	6	12
Maximum possible credits	206	206	206	212
Diploma Gained	Year 7 Practice year Over 120 credits year 8		Over 120 credits of 206/212 credits available

Diploma levels

	Year 7 practice	Year 8 to 10 Diplomas
Achieved	Not awarded – practice year	120 credits
Merit	Not awarded – practice year	120 credits (60or more  credits at merit or above)
Excellence	Not awarded – practice year	120 credits (60 or more  credits at excellence)
100+ club=$100	100 credits or more at E	100 credits or more at E

Students gaining more than 65% of their credits at M or above in a subject will get a Merit subject endorsement, gaining 65% or more credits at E will get an excellence subject endorsement.

Bonus credits:

• 6 credits are available from the Year 10 jumbo health days
• 6 credits per year are available through Whanau Time at each year level

  

Key Competencies

• The Key Competencies are:       
  
  * Belonging
  * Thinking
  * Relating to Others
  * Managing Self
  * Making Meaning (Multi Literacy’s)

The credit value for the key competencies for each subject is to equal the number of credits assigned for the Course Work.

Each subject has defined criteria as to how they will award achieved, merit or excellence for each competency they assess. 

Please refer to your son/daughters report for the credit break down for each of their subjects

Notes

• Students not achieving the required number of credits by the end of Year 8, 9 10, will not advance to the next level within the school.
• Students will be signposted during the year. At risk students will be provided with assistance / guidance in order to obtain the necessary credits.
• At the end of each term, Deans will meet with students at risk.

More about the Key Competencies

Thinking is about all kinds of thinking in all kinds of contexts. It includes creative, critical and logical thinking, and the ability to think about thinking – as well as self-awareness, reflection, and judgment.
Making meaning is about discovering meaning in ideas – represented as they may be in any of their countless forms. It is about interpreting cues and clues; about getting below the surface, about wanting to get to the bottom of things.
Relating to others is about the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes needed for living, working, and playing with others. It includes the ability and inclination to take a variety of roles in group situations – for example, leadership, conflict resolution, and negotiation – and demonstrating consideration for others.
Managing self is about making good decisions for oneself whilst recognising that we are part of a wider, interdependent, social context. It is about the inner independence that comes from being given manageable amounts of responsibility and choice. 'Managing self' includes the ability to make plans, set goals, and estimate time needed for activities. It is also about developing strategies to overcome hurdles, and knowing when a change of course is needed.
Participating and contributing involves gaining a panoramic view of what is possible. It is about seeing one's potential to be a member of multiple communities – for example, family, iwi, and friendship groups, or communities of artists, problem solvers, sportspeople, or mathematicians. By participating, we gain the sense of achievement that comes from making a contribution to local and global communities.