A big focus from the NZAPT is to provide help and support to Psychology teachers through our mentoring program.
Here is a word from Rachel, one of our mentees from 2023.
This mentorship programme, along with NZAPT moderation support, is why I’ve been able to offer NCEA Level 3 Psychology to my student this year. Health School usually relies on Te Kura to provide teaching and learning for NCEA, but Psychology is not offered by Te Kura, and my student was absolutely desperate to study this subject. Wanting to hook into her personal interests, I went to my AP with a proposal of offering Psychology without the backdrop and security of Te Kura, a rather rare situation for us. What got me through with acceptance of my proposal, I believe, was the assurance that by joining the Association I could be mentored through the programme, and I had a reliable source of assessment materials and moderation.
Sally has been super helpful and easily accessible so far, starting by coming up with a year plan for me and clarifying the best achievement standards to work on, according to my student’s abilities and interests. Topics of study have also been discussed according to the student’s interests, keeping the student’s health condition/s in mind. Sally has been understanding of the unique nature of Health School and thinking of ways to combine learning across two or more standards in order to minimise workload and pressure for the student. The start-of-year resources she has shared with me so far look really engaging and will be a fun way to introduce concepts of Psychology. As the year goes on, I will be looking for her guidance around assessment and moderation, making sure I ‘tick all the boxes’ from an NZQA point of view. Although I’m completely new to this subject, and slightly daunted by picking it up at NCEA Level 3, I feel suitably reassured that with Sally’s guidance we will do okay, learning lots - for this student and potential future students - along the way!
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