4 minute read
ETHICS REPORT
It has been a privilege to begin working as the Director of the Centre for Ethics here at Diocesan. Term 1 is always really busy, so there are lots of things to share. I have the privilege of working with our Ethics Council, led by 2024 Ethics Prefect Maya Willis.
Soapbox
The Soapbox competition is a favourite on the Diocesan Term 1 calendar, running over several weeks. As always, we heard from a large number of students throughout the preliminary stage, speaking about a vast range of topics. We were impressed with the engagement, especially from our Year 7 and 8 students who showed that they really do care about issues that impact us all and set us the wero (challenge) to make a positive difference through the actions that we take.
Our aim for this year’s Soapbox was for students to make connections with the curriculum learning. We encouraged students to talk about the ethical questions raised in their classes and it was pleasing to see many of them take up this challenge.
The final was held on Thursday 11 April with speeches ranging from child poverty to family vlogging, corporate hypocrisy to questioning the artistic merit of graffiti. Congratulations to Jasmine Hughes (Year 8) and Emilia Young (Year 11) who were announced as this year’s winners from a strong group of talented speakers.
Ethics Olympiad
Diocesan continues to be involved with the Ethics Olympiad. This is an international competition where students engage in ethical issues and are given the opportunity to discuss these with other students, firstly here in New Zealand and, if successful, further afield. In February, we had a team of JHS E-thletes participating in the international final of the Middle School Ethics Olympiad. These students did themselves proud and were awarded a special mention from the judges – a special mention is awarded to teams who go beyond expectations.
May saw the Senior Ethics Olympiad competition taking place. We had two teams entered with students from Years 11 and 12. The teams discussed issues ranging from the development and use of generative tools such as ChatGPT to Sportwashing, from the place of negative, stereotypical tropes in fiction to the personhood of animals. During a series of rounds against schools throughout the North Island, the students engaged in discussions that challenged their thinking and viewpoints.
One of our teams was awarded first place in the competition with Matthew Willis, Ethics Olympiad Project Manager commenting that “this was quite an achievement given the number and quality of the teams involved”. The team was invited to take part in the International Final later in the year, competing against a range of teams from across the globe.
Ethics In The Junior School
I was pleased to be asked into our Year 5 and 6 classes to introduce ideas about ethical decision-making. For the Year 6 students, this is part of the ‘Who We Are’ Unit of Inquiry in the PYP programme.
It has been rewarding to work with these classes as we explored a variety of scenarios, thinking about how we could act before thinking about how we should act, and the reasoning behind this. Moving forward, I will continue to work with smaller groups of girls as they prepare for the Ethics Olympiad, and also in Term 3 as they prepare for their Soapbox competition.
The Centre for Ethics has lots of other exciting things planned for the rest of the year and we are looking forward to these. As a council, we are interested in hearing from members of our community who might have something worth sharing. I’d love to hear from you if think that you have something to offer our students in the Ethics space.
