Our Philosophy

Christ’s College is committed to being a leader in teaching and learning, offering students one of the finest education experiences.

Our commitment guides all areas of our academic operations, underpinning our pedagogy, programmes and procedures. At Christ’s College, we strive to be innovative in our teaching and learning while maintaining the rich traditions of our past.

Our approach to teaching and learning is based on extensive experience in educating boys, supported by the latest research on boys’ learning needs and educational achievement. We strive to engage all our boys so that they can achieve, and to create an environment where boys thrive. We are aspirational for our boys’ academic outcomes.

We also recognise the rich experiences that contribute to learning both inside and outside the classroom. While academic learning is predominantly gained in a traditional classroom, life learning extends across all experiences at Christ’s College. We believe our curriculum encompasses all these learning experiences and are proud of our commitment to a holistic education, including our significant co-curricular programme.

Our virtues and graduate outcomes remain at the forefront of our curriculum. As a faith-inspired school, boys experience an education embedded with the behavioural expectations of our virtues. These virtues form the framework of our interactions as a community. Our programme nurtures those virtues and the qualities found in a Christ’s College Graduate. Our Round Square International membership contributes to those many College opportunities based on six aspirational themes – the IDEALS that define the common threads in member schools.

  • Our Virtues

    Seven core Christian virtues underpin all aspects of College life

    • Honesty
    • Spirituality
    • Compassion
    • Learning
    • Respect
    • Stewardship
    • Justice
  • The ideal Christ’s College Graduate
    • A disposition to serve
    • Compassion & empathy
    • Confidence & humility
    • Courage & resilience
    • Enterprise & curiosity
    • Global & bicultural competence
    • Interpersonal skills
    • Personal excellence
    • Self-awareness
    • Capacity to lead & follow

Our classrooms

At Christ’s College, a supported, safe space for learning is at the heart of classroom practice. Small class sizes enable teacher and student relationships to develop quickly and provide teachers with the capacity to invest in individual student assistance.

We nurture the ambitions of the brightest scholars while taking equal pleasure in the outstanding progress of those boys who benefit from our Learning Centre. The boys respect each other’s commitment, whether within or outside the classroom.

New Zealand Curriculum

All courses at Christ’s College are based on the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). We expose boys to all NZC learning areas and have selected key achievement objectives from the national curriculum document that guide our subject selection. As an independent school, Christ’s College takes the best of NZC and extends our teaching to include aspects that support our special character. Our primary qualification framework, NCEA, provides our students with every opportunity to access the best tertiary and other post-school pathways, both in New Zealand and internationally.

Christ’s College is committed to developing NZC key competencies through all our programmes and across all year levels. The capacity to think critically and creatively, to deal effectively with diversity and change, to relate to others and be active global citizens are the enduring competencies of the Christ’s College Graduate.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence & Research ensures curriculum alignment across all year groups (Years 9–13), and enables the consistent development of these competencies.

Assessment and reporting

In Years 9–11, assessment is an everyday occurrence. All work in classes contributes to a teacher’s assessment of students’ strengths and areas for improvement. While there will be larger assessment projects or tests – including concluding Year 11 with an examination week to give students this life skill – it is important that boys realise all learning contributes to their outcomes. This helps establish a work ethic, enabling the mastery of skills and content for success in NCEA and tertiary education.

Learning progression – a next-step approach to reporting – is the backbone of the Year 9 and Diploma curriculum. It defines what a student can do and where effort is required in order to advance. Clear data comes from learning progressions, enabling better tracking of student achievement than a more traditional grading scale.

Ongoing and timely feedback – available to students and parents – is provided through our Learning Management System, Schoolbox. Feedback is then collated into a traditional report, available at the end of each term.

In Years 12–13, assessment and reporting follows the NCEA grading framework – Not Achieved, Achieved, Merit, and Excellence. Students are given feedback and grades on all major assessments through Schoolbox, which is also available to parents.

Across all year levels, Interim Progress Grades (IPGs) are published several times a term to give students and parents a quick snapshot of student effort, progress, and attitude.

For more information, contact:

Staff Nicole Billante 1445 SQ
Nicole Billante

Deputy Principal – Teaching & Learning