Pros and cons of education’s cutting edge
With any change, criticism can follow but so can a groundswell of support. Deena Coster reports on the realities of shaking up the educational curriculum.
It is not easy to find any knockers in terms of what is happening at Spotswood College. By 2020, New Plymouth’s only coeducational secondary school will be unrecognisable compared with how it used to run.
Its new curriculum model lets students mix and match courses to suit their individual needs and goals, with teachers of different subjects working alongside each other to collaborate on topics.
It is not your traditional reading, writing and arithmetic, but it combines all of those subjects and more in different, often unexpected, ways.
This is a curriculum that shakes the foundations of what most would consider a conventional education and gives the power and responsibility to students to take charge of their learning while tapping into resources and expertise within the wider community.
Following intense preparation at the end of 2018, this year has seen Spotswood College jumping in boots and all into the future-focused education model.
Even the school uniform is up for an overhaul, with the forest green look being phased out in favour of a new blue ensemble.
Spotswood College is one of six schools in New Zealand using the progressive DisruptED programme.
How it works at the six schools (the others are: Hobsonville Point Secondary School, Albany Senior High School, Hamilton’s Rototuna High School, Christchurch’s Haeata Community Campus, and Rolleston College) may look different but the shared goal is to give students the problem solving abilities and diverse set of skills they will need to succeed in a changing world.
Nearing the end of its first full year of transformational change, Spotswood College principal Nicola Ngarewa feels like the partnerships they are creating are beginning to gain momentum, and are not only benefiting the school but the wider community as well.
While fostering student talent is crucial, creating new resources which will benefit and empower the entire community is equally important. ‘‘That is what it is all about.’’ She feels there is a growing ‘‘groundswell’’, something which is having positive benefits for the reputation of the school.
She says Spotswood staff are being shoulder-tapped to speak at different events around the country and next year, for the first time in a decade, the school will welcome its largest year 9 intake.
Larissa Wilkinson, who is in her final weeks at Spotswood College, says she has had ‘‘a lot of awesome opportunities’’ this year, including being able to test out career path choices she is interested in by meeting with business bosses and other mentors during school time.
‘‘That is part of my curriculum,’’ the year 13 student says.
While the teen is a natural go-getter, she says opportunities are there for all students.
‘‘If they want to do something, it will happen.’’
The divide between students and teachers has all but disappeared and the school community feels more like a wha¯ nau now, Larissa says.
This connection is something her father, Paul Wilkinson, has noticed too.
‘‘The kids these days really do seem to have each others’ backs.’’
Three generations of Wilkinson’s family have been to Spotswood College and when he first heard of the curriculum changes he found the concept ‘‘intriguing’’.
He felt the younger students would be the ones to get the most out of it but he feels the seniors have benefited just as much.
‘‘You never had a chance when I was at school to be part of the bigger picture,’’ he says.
He believes there is a ‘‘real buzz’’ in the school now and the pride in belonging to the Spotswood College community is increasingly obvious.
‘‘That is the one part which has definitely grown this year.’’
But such dramatic change can attract the critics, something Andy Kai Fong, principal of Christchurch’s Haeata Community Campus, is only too aware of.
He admits the school, which opened in 2017 to replace the gap left by the closure of others following the city’s earthquake, got a ‘‘prickly’’ reception.
And two years on from when it first opened, the school has yet to shake the concerns completely.
In June this year, some senior students at the campus spoke out about how the self-directed learning style did not work for NCEA and they were also worried about learning standards for younger pupils.
Kai Fong admits that while some students had taken well to the school’s approach to the curriculum, others struggled.
But he believes there is growing momentum around the philosophy which drives the future-focused education programme at Haeata.
While NCEA is the main measure of success in New Zealand secondary schools at the moment, Kai Fong says one of the challenges for the education system is to find different ways to gauge progress.
‘‘Broadening that notion of success is actually really essential.’’
Withstanding the criticism, he thinks the school will be on the right side of history in terms of the direction of where education will have to head, especially in light of what the future of work will look like.
‘‘We certainly feel like we are on the edge of change.’’
Spotswood and Haeata Community Campus may be leading the way in terms of providing the future template for how education could work in New Zealand but it is not to say other high schools are stagnating.
Paul Veric, who was the principal of New Plymouth Boys’ High School for four years before leaving earlier in this year, spearheaded curriculum changes of his own during his tenure.
While he sold a vision to the school board ahead of his appointment, he says it was not until he got his head under the hood that he noticed the need for change.
One aspect he noticed was that of the large number of senior students only 30 per cent of them went on to university. Yet the curriculum still centred around meeting the needs of that particular cohort.
‘‘To me that just seemed wrong.’’ He wanted more options for the students heading to polytech, into trades or starting up their own businesses.
This led to the introduction of semester courses and a tripling of the number of available subjects from 50 to 150.
Another addition was a life skills programme.
He says while he believes the timetabled structure remains essential to provide security for students in terms of learning, it is also important students think their education gives them purpose, a sense of confidence and a strong work ethic.
Taking teachers, parents and especially students with you when you embark on change is key, Veric says, but sometimes time is the only accurate measure of success.
‘‘If it is the right change, it should traverse time.’’
As part of a special project, Stuff and the Taranaki Daily News is following Spotswood College through the 2019 academic year.