Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, formerly The Correspondence School, says it is New Zealand’s largest school with nearly 30,000 pupils.
The correspondence school, which caters to pupils from 5 to 19 years old, opened a new regional office in Dunedin yesterday.
Incoming chief executive officer Te Rina Leonard, of Wellington, said the school could now respond more easily to the needs of the local community.
"It’s great for Dunedin because we’ll be able to better respond to and engage with kids based in Dunedin and in the surrounding areas.
"They get to see their teachers, they get to have that face-to-face dialogue and also fun — young people need to have fun."
Te Kura provided more flexibility to their pupils than other schools, Ms Leonard said.
"We don’t need to work within the structures that other schools need to.
"You know you don’t have to be stuck within a 9am to 3pm.
"Literally, we can take a child and their family from wherever they are at and work out what’s going to work best."
Nationally, 1000 of the 2000 new enrolments in the past year came through the "non-enrolled gateway".
Non-enrolled pupils were most likely taken off their previous school’s roster for not attending and were picked up by the Ministry of Education’s Attendance Service.
"We don’t want 14-year-olds not going to school and some of them are younger, and so Te Kura provides a different way of meeting their needs.
"I think that it’s great that the education system says ‘this may not be working for you but how about this?’," Ms Leonard said.
Te Kura was a hybrid model that incorporated online learning with face-to-face interactions through huinga ako (learning sessions), where pupils met with kaiawhina (youth workers) that bridged the gap between pupils and teachers, she said.
Kaiāwhina Patrick Sefo-Cloughley, 19, said his role was to not only support the pupil, but also the family and the teacher.
"Everyone thinks that they are rock bottom. Usually the students that I work with ask ‘what do I do’ and that’s when I’m the voice of reason."
He had done activities like CrossFit to get pupils engaged in the past, Mr Sefo-Cloughley said.
His young age appealed to the students and he recommended more people his age became kaiawhina as well, he said.
Te Kura also has regional offices in Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch.
