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Welcome

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COMMERCE DEPARTMENT

Teachers in Charge:

  • Mr N Tully (HOD)
  • Mrs N Bowles (Keyboarding)
  • Ms Z Schuyt (Accounting)
  • Mr M Pope (Economics)

Subjects Offered:

  • Accounting Forms 5-7
  • Business Studies Form 7
  • Economics Forms 3-7
  • Keyboarding Forms 3-7
  • Legal Studies Form 6
  • Teeline Shorthand Forms 6-7

ACCOUNTING

General Aim:

Accounting is concerned with students being able to understand the financial world and to be able to prepare and interpret financial information to aid decision-making.

Form 5 Accounting

Pre-requisite: None.

Course Content: On the completion of the year's work, students have sufficient knowledge to enable them to be the treasurer of a club and to understand and be able to prepare financial statements for a small business..

Assessment: S.C. examination (100% external examination).

Form 6 Accounting

Pre-requisite: 5th form Accounting a distinct advantage.

Course Content: The year's work focuses on the use of financial information for decision-making with an emphasis on accounting systems.

Assessment: 6th Form Certificate - internal assessment.

Form 7 Accounting

Pre-requisite: 5th and 6th Form Accounting a distinct advantage.

Course Content: The preparation of financial information for partnerships, companies and manufacturing entities.

Assessment: University Bursary (100% external examination);

BUSINESS STUDIES

Form 7 Business Studies

Pre-requisite: Minimum one SFC Grade 6. May not be taken with either 7th Form Economics or Accounting.

Course Content: This is a practical course which aims to give students an experience of running a business (through Young Enterprise Trust). Students also compete in the National Stockmarket Game, the Enterprise New Zealand Pathways to Financial Literacy Programme.

Assessment:

  1. YE Exam (University of Oxford)
  2. Certificates of Achievement (YE Trust/Stockmarket Challenge)
  3. Unit Standards (Pathways to Financial Literacy)
  4. Higher School Certificate.

ECONOMICS

General aim:

Economics is a study of how people as individuals and groups choose to satisfy their wants, by allocating and managing scarce resources. Within the school curriculum the subject aims to assist students to understand that individuals, groups and communities make decisions about the use of scarce resources.

Economics aims to enable students to take an effective part in economic activity and contribute to future economic well-being.

Throughout all levels the following skills are taught:

  1. Cognitive Thinking - Evaluation of economic ideas.
  2. Statistical-Calculation, comprehension and presentation of statistics relating to the economy and economic decision-making.
  3. Decision-making - Set goals, determine alternatives to reaching goals, rank alternatives and choose the best option, then evaluate the consequences of the decision.

4 Investigative - Collect, interpret and analyse information then present conclusions in the appropriate form.

Form 3 Consumer Economics

Course Outline: This course serves as an introduction to the subject and considers aspects of personal economics - decision-making, management and participation. There are four units: Money and Economics, Earning an Income, Budgeting and Wise Buying, and Economics is 'Choice'.

Assessment: Internal including an end of semester test.

Form 4 Consumer Economics

Course Outline:

Units include: Consumer Demand, Saving and Borrowing, Insurance, the Consumer's Role in Production, Legal Responsibilities and Rights of the Consumer, Consumer's Role in the Economy and Accounting. There is also a unit on Enterprise Studies - the challenge of running your own business!.

Assessment: Internal including an end of year exam.

Form 5 Economics

Pre-requisite: Study of Consumer Economics at Forms 3 and 4 an advantage.

Course Outline: This level concentrates on the market system. It considers the roles of consumers and producers and examines how the price system works.

  1. Production and Producers
  2. Consumers and Consumption
  3. The Market Economy - Interaction of Consumers and Products

Assessment: S.C. examination. 70% from final exam; 30% from internal assessment of Investigative and Decision-making skills.

Form 6 Economics

Pre-requisite: 5th Form Economics is an advantage.

Course Content: This is a very topical course, using current events to examine the following economic issues:

Employment; Economic growth; Inflation; Trade; Inequality.

Assessment: Internally assessed for Sixth Form Certificate.

Form 7 Economics

Pre-requisite: 5th and 6th Form Economics an advantage.

Course Outline: The 'Bursary' course is a theoretical one which is divided into three sections:

  1. Resource allocation via the market system.
  2. Allocation via the public sector.
  3. Aggregate economic activity and policy.

Assessment:

  1. Bursary exam: 20% internally assessed based on two investigations, one on a topic from section 1, the other on a topic from section 2; 80% on the Bursary/Scholarship examination.
  2. NZEST (Scholarship) optional.

KEYBOARDING

General Aim: Keyboarding is concerned with students developing keyboard mastery and information technology skills either for personal and/or vocational use.

Form 3 Keyboarding

Course Content: Form 3 keyboarding course develops the student's ability to master the keyboard and display simple letters, advertisements, tables and menus.

Assessment: 3rd Form Common testing.

Form 4 Keyboarding

Pre-requisite: Study at 3rd Form an advantage.

Course Content: This course aims to build on keyboard skills learnt at Form 3 level and uses the keyboard as a communication tool to develop format and language skills. It also encourages students to make decisions independently and prepares them for an external examination.

Assessment: External Pitman Elementary Word Processing examination. Internal Common tests and examination at end of year.

Form 5 Keyboarding

Pre-requisite: 4th Form Keyboarding.

Course Content: This course develops keyboard and communication skills for personal and vocational use.

Assessment: SC examination. Pitman examinations. Internal common tests and examinations.

Form 6 Keyboarding

Pre-requisite: 5th Form Keyboarding.

Course Content: Sixth Form Certificate in Keyboarding enables students to utilise the word processor and allied technology competently as a means of communication for both personal and vocational purposes, through mastery of keyboard skills, graphic design skills and language development.

Assessment: Internally assessed for 6th Form Certificate. Pitman external examinations.

Form 7 Higher School Certificate Keyboarding

Pre-requisite: 6th Form Certificate Keyboarding.

Course Content: This course is in advance of the National 6FC Typing course and aims to extend the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values of that course. It is a course approved for the HSC Award, independent of any other award and is aimed towards vocational (business) use of information technologies.

Assessment: Internally assessed for Higher School Certificate. Pitman external examinations.

SHORTHAND

Form 6 Teeline Shorthand

Pre-requisite: SC English recommended.

Course Content: This course provides an introduction and development of the student's ability to write and transcribe Teeline shorthand notes taken from unprepared work of a general literary or commercial nature. It also prepares students for external examinations in shorthand.

Assessment: Internally assessed SFC. External examinations - Teeline/Pitman.

LEGAL STUDIES

Form 6 Legal Studies

Pre-requisite: Minimum of one S.C. grade C.

Course Content: Legal studies enables students to understand the basic principles of the N.Z. legal system and to gain an introductory working knowledge of a variety of specific areas of Law which include Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Civil Law, Contract Law, Law of Succession and Family Law.

Assessment:

  1. Internal assessment for Sixth Form Certificate.
  2. Appropriate Unit Standards offered.

COMPUTER DEPARTMENT

Teacher in Charge: Mr J Gibbs (HOD)

Courses Offered: Computer Studies Form 6 and 7.

General Aim: The courses aim to develop an understanding of elementary computer hardware and software concepts; develop skills in problem-solving using a computer; increase a student's general knowledge of computers, their history, applications and implications for society.

Form 6 Computer Studies

Pre-requisite: There are two options: Programming and Screen Presentation - To do the programming option students need a minimum of Grade C in S.C. Mathematics. (N.B. There is some programming in both courses).

Course Content: Using a word processor, desktop publishing, spreadsheets, database; programming in BASIC; Computer System; Applications of computers, Implications for society.

Assessment: Internally assessed for Sixth Form Certificate. Some units will be assessed also for unit standards.

Form 7 Computer Studies

Pre-requisite: Form 6 Computer Studies. (Grade 5 or better in S.F.C.)

Course Content: This course develops in more detail the areas listed in the Form 6 course, with the emphasis on programming skills. The units covered are: The Personal Computer; The Computer System; Wordprocessing; Spreadsheets; Databases; Desktop Publishing; Integrated Software; Logic; Problem Analysis and Programming.

Assessment: Internally assessed for Higher School Certificate. A certificate is also available to students who gain a minimum of 80% in one or more of the units.

 
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