At MMI we run Friday Academies. Academies are classes where a group of students from across the school are chosen to join together for academic extension. Academies run in each of the four terms, for 8-week blocks and are run in Blocks 1 and 2 on a Friday. In addition to the two academy classes in block two, our six specialists will also teach enrichment courses in their subject.
The Board of Trustees has budgeted for extra staffing to allow staff to run these programmes. The extension classes are focussed on literacy, numeracy, science and thinking skills with a challenging academic focus. Each class runs for 8 weeks and is taught by a variety of passionate and capable MMI teachers.
Selection for these classes is based on classroom data through our in school assessments. Teachers are asked for student data and the Senior Leadership Team makes the final selections. In term one each year, academies will be available to Year 8s as we have their achievement data on hand from the previous year.
Students may attend more than one Academy class over the year. We think that having access to a variety of teachers who will be teaching an area they are passionate about and interested in themselves, is a great segway into high school.
In addition to our MMI Academic Academies, we will continue to offer other opportunities for extension such as ICAS testing, Otago Problem Solving, Science Fair, Future problem Solving, Writing Competitions, Speech Competitions etc.
If you have any questions about the academies, please contact Shem Banbury s.banbury@mtint.school.nz or Debbie Howell d.howell@mtint.school.nz
