English Language Department

English Language Department

Welcome to the English Language Department at Mount Albert Grammar School. You may have known us as the ESOL Department, but from 2017 we have a new name.

The English Language courses provide students with language support to enable them to succeed in mainstream subjects.

If you are new to New Zealand and English is not your mother tongue, we will talk with both students and parents to learn about your previous experience with learning English, your academic goals and how you want to use English in the future. We will also assess your English understanding. This information allows us to identify and meet the needs of each student and to personalise learning for the students.

Mount Albert Grammar School offers Intensive English classes at three levels. The aim of these Intensive classes is to support English language learners to achieve the same learning outcomes as native speakers of English through individualised, supported teaching. The language programme follows the English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) which focuses strongly on language for learning. The subjects taught within the Intensive programme include:

  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • English
  • Social Studies
  • English Language

English Language Courses

Option subjects and Physical Education is also included as part of the programme.

English language classes are also available from Year 10 through to Year 13. The aim of these programmes is to increase student achievement in the mainstream, with a focus on developing the student’s academic vocabulary
reading and writing of academic texts ability to communicate correctly ability to assess the reliability of what they hear and read and use this information to produce researched texts.

The programme in Years 11- 13 allows students to achieve credits, which contribute to NCEA Level 1-3 certificates.

  • Year 11: 31 credits
  • Year 12: 20 credits
  • Year 13: 10 credits – University entrance reading and writing literacy requirements.

The Year 13 English Language course provides assessment opportunities for students to gain the university literacy requirement in both reading and writing. The same course also qualifies for the Academic English Language Requirement (AELR) at the University of Auckland. However, this subject is not a university approved subject.

There are no pre-requisite requirements to enter the English Language courses.