REP has been running at OTHC for some time now, with over 1500 of our students being given the chance to experience its unique benefits.
REP is a literacy initiative that relies heavily on community involvement. The programme's basic philosophy of learning through connecting' involves our students being taught in a one-on-one environment by our many volunteer tutors - all of whom have made successes of their lives through their many years of hard work.
For some time now, there has been the realisation that the literacy skills of a portion of students entering OTHC are not at the required levels to encourage success in the students' senior years. The REP programme was therefore devised to upskill our students in the required literacy components in an endeavor to overcome this.
We are fortunate to be able to make REP available to a selection of our Year 9 students due to the support of our Senior Leadership and teaching staff at OTHC, and our generous sponsors (refer overleaf)
The success of the REP programme can be judged, not only by the data gathered from assessments, but by the fact that its reputation has spread, and it has now been set up in eleven different schools in the North Auckland and Auckland regions. These establishments include OTHC, Bay of Islands College, PASS, Otahuhu College, Aorere College, Papatoetoe High School, Wesley College, Sir Edmund Hillary Colligate, Kelston Girls School, Waiheke School, and Finlayson Park School, with many more schools enquiring to set up the programme. AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY has released two reports on their research into why REP is so successful - their findings back up fully what the programme was designed to achieve for our students.
The programme targets students who have the ability but just need the necessary enrichment of their literacy skills to reach their full potential and therefore be successful in their future academic life.
On REP we cover all five language strands of the literacy curriculum:
In the Reading strand we target the disciplines of summarization and comprehension as students taken on REP have good decoding skills. Broadening core subject vocabulary is also a focus.
Our results over the years have shown that these targets have proven to be the ones that have led to our many ex-REP students gaining very good grades in their future NCEA examinations
We are also proud of the number of our students who go on to become student leaders of our college. On the back of this leaflet, you will also see past REP students who have gained scholarships, honours, and awards.
REP is a wonderful programme as it involves parents, community and the school, working together for the benefit of the Year 9 students at our college to get them ready for their future education.
