The Ministry of Education's Investing in Educational Success (IES) initiative could mean the start of a new era for area schools, the principal of a rural South Otago area school says.
The Catlins Area School, Roxburgh Area School, Maniototo Area School, Lawrence Area School, Waiau Area School and Twizel Area School have formed a partnership under IES, called the Southern Area Community of Schools.
It is the first group involving Otago schools to take up the initiative in the region.
The Catlins Area School principal, New Zealand Area Schools Association president and Southern Area Schools community spokesman Alex MacCreadie said the initiative provided a process to get communities behind raising achievement for all children and young people through working together to identify and address common achievement challenges.
The Government has made $359 million in funding available over the first four years of the programme, and $155 million a year after that, to help raise achievement by improving teaching practice across New Zealand; enabling teachers to work together and benefit from each other's knowledge and experience; helping all children benefit from the skills and knowledge of great teachers from across a group of schools; and helping schools work together so it is easier for children to move through the education system.
It is also intended to provide new career opportunities for teachers and principals.
Mr MacCreadie said the Southern Area Community of Schools was working together to come up with a list of common goals - also known as achievement challenges - which aimed to lift their pupils' achievements in areas such as reading, writing and maths.
The Community of Schools had begun the process, but was still in the early stages of deciding what its targets might be, he said.
''A lot of it is not actually nailed down yet. I suspect it will be in the next month.
''We've established what kind of relationship we would like to have with the schools, and how we would like to work together.''
Mr MacCreadie believed the initiative would have a ''great impact'' on area schools in the region.
"It means instead of having 15 staff members putting their thinking caps on to find a solution, if you've got five area schools working together, you've got 50 or 60 staff members putting their thinking caps on.''
He said area schools in particular were quite remote and that remoteness gave them different challenges.
"Often, if you are a teacher in an area school, you are a one-man band, and that creates a lot of challenges because you can't find anyone else that has the same kind of educational problems that you have.
"We teach very much to the individual. Each kid is pretty much on their own education programme. No other type of school has that kind of education challenge.''
Apart from the Southern Area Community of Schools, there were only two other communities of schools in the southern region, he said.
They are the Northern Southland Community of Schools (Northern Southland College, Fiordland College, Balfour School, Garston School, Lumsden School, Mararoa School, Mossburn School, Te Anau School, Waikaia School) and the Lower Mataura Valley Community of Schools (Menzies College, Edendale School, Glenham School, Tuturau Primary School, Wyndham School).
Education Minister Hekia Parata was delighted more than 120,000 pupils were now in 42 Communities of Schools, committed to working together to raise pupil achievement.''
We now have Communities of Schools across much of the country, from Auckland to Otago-Southland, and that's incredibly exciting for the kids, parents, teachers, schools and their local communities,'' she said.
"We've got over 330 schools involved and we are working with over 200 other schools that we expect to form communities before the end of this year.''
IES explained
How Investing in Educational Success works. -
• Groups of schools form Communities of Schools
• Communities of Schools use their shared information to set goals (achievement challenges) specific to their school's needs, which will help lift pupil achievement
• Schools share their most effective teachers and leaders to meet these goals
• Resources are provided to support teachers and principals to collaborate
• $359m in Government funding is available over the first 4 years of the programme, and $155m the following year
