Social Studies

Social Studies at Year 9 and 10 

‘Social Studies education aims to enable students to participate in a changing society as informed, confident, and responsible citizens’
‘If we choose not to live alone, we must learn how to live together’. As a core subject in the junior school Social Studies offers students a key part of their identity – a place to stand. By examining our own and other people’s societies our developing young citizens move closer to an understanding of how they are affected by the rules, laws, values and attitudes of the people around them. More significantly, by learning the vital skills of inquiry and research, valuing and taking social action, they learn how they can shape our developing society and its cultures. Knowing who we are gives us strength. Knowing how to make a difference empowers us to do so.

At Glenfield College we offer the following programme:

 Year 9 – as delivered to the students

1. Identity, Culture and Organisation
2. Understand how systems of government in New Zealand operate and affect people’s lives, and how they compare with another system.

Topics: NZ Parliament

1. ii) Understand how cultural interaction impacts on cultures and societies.

Topics: India, SurfAid

2. Place and Environment
3. i) Understand that people move between places and how this has consequences for the people and the places.

Topics: Migration

3. The Economic World
4. i) Understand how people seek and have sought economic growth through business, enterprise, and innovation.

Topic: Tauiwi

Students will

• ask questions, gather information and background ideas, and examine relevant current issues
• explore and analyse people’s values and perspectives
• consider the ways in which people make decisions and participate in social action
• reflect on and evaluate the understandings they have developed and the responses that may be required.

We hope everyone has a good year and acquires the skills needed to be successful in understanding aspects of behaviour that will assist in operating in a largely competitive and yet also cooperative world.

Year 10 – as delivered to the students

1. Identity, Culture and Organisation
2. i) Understand how the Treaty of Waitangi is responded to differently by people in different times and places.

Topic: Te Tiriti – The Treaty of Waitangi

1. ii) Understand how people define and seek human rights.

Topic: Sociology – Human Rights

2. Place and Environment
3. i) Understand how people’s management of resources impacts on environmental and social sustainability

Topic: Geography – Sustainability

3. Continuity and Change
4. i) Understand how the ideas and actions of people in the past have had a significant impact on people’s lives.

Topic: History – Hitler’s Germany

4. The Economic World
5. i) Understand how economic decisions impact on people, communities, and nations.

Topic: Economics – Globalisation and Circular Flow

Using classroom teaching and social inquiry approach, students will:

• ask questions, gather information and background ideas, and examine relevant current issues
• explore and analyse people’s values and perspectives
• consider the ways in which people make decisions and participate in social action
• reflect on and evaluate the understandings they have developed and the responses that may be required.

We hope students acquire the skills and tools needed for Year 11 in that they understand and can examine aspects of human behaviour in our own complex society and the wider world.