Central Southland College’s new education platform appears to be delivering in spades following its introduction three years ago.
Principal Stephen Dick said the school’s shift from traditional year-long subjects to a semester-based system, focused on student engagement and real-world application.
Over the past three years, the model has led to record-breaking results, including 14 NCEA scholarships in a single year.
The school was now in the consolidation phase to evaluate its success
‘‘We’re looking at what we’re doing and making sure it’s working because what we wanted to do was improve student engagement.
‘‘So we wanted to see kids turning up and being part of school and wanting to be here ... but essentially, kids are going to work if they are enjoying what is in front of them.’’
The school no longer offered NCEA level 1, but instead focused on equipping students to achieve well in level 2 and 3.
Mr Dick said level 2 results had shown improvement on previous years.
‘‘We got 14 scholarships last year.
‘‘We’ve never had that before.’’
Assistant principal Alyssa Johnstone said the catalyst for change came after an exiting staff member challenged Mr Dick about the school’s direction which he pondered on during a sabbatical.
Ms Johnstone was part of a steering committee that worked with Chris Jansen from Leadership Lab to navigate ‘‘change-tired’’ staff and focus on school values.
The committee focused on a ‘‘graduate profile’’ — the skills and characteristics they wanted students to leave with beyond just qualifications.
Under the model students take 12 semester courses per year run in half-year blocks with each subject consisting of one 95-minute lesson and two 60 minute lessons a week.
Ms Johnstone said the old learning model did not measure engagement.
‘‘What we were really judging kids on was how compliant they were . . . rather than how engaged they were.’’
The new flexibility allowed students to explore a greater range of topics.
‘‘The focus . . . is exploring the curriculum ... we don’t want them to discount things they’ve never tried.
‘‘We can honour what they want alongside what we require.’’
Students entered the model at year 8 and explore a wider range of subjects through years 9 to 11.
‘‘By year 11 ... they’ve got a clearer picture about what they’re passionate about.’’
Literacy and numeracy skills remained top priorities but were now embedded into the curriculum rather than being separate subjects.
‘‘It’s applied learning ... a real-life thing.’’
Another significant change involved reducing form classes from 27 students to ‘‘Whānau groups’’ of about 18 students with a staff member responsible for pastoral care.
‘‘We really want teachers to have time to get to know kids ... and for kids to feel valued.’’ she said.
While parents, accustomed to traditional models, were initially not confident the new system could deliver a quality education, Ms Johnstone believed it was an opportunity for the school and parents to negotiate the best outcome.
‘‘Those homes really want their kids in a full year of science, maths and English ... [but] the most important thing we could do, to set our students up for success in the real world, was to ensure that they were literate and numerate.’’
Success relied heavily on advanced timetable software which offers each student 12 preferred courses and four back-ups — with more than 90% of students getting their top choices.
Since the college introduced the model, other Southland schools have visited to observe, though Ms Johnstone noted no two schools would look the same.
- Toni McDonald
