Technology helps in campus integration

A New Zealand school has achieved significant milestones in staff and student integration between campuses, and online and distant learning through effective use of modern technology.

Westmount School, which caters to children from Brethren communities, provides online syllabus and videoconference facilities, apart from a virtual, visual link between staff and students located at various campuses every week.

Specialist teachers from various parts of New Zealand deliver lessons to students through video network.

Older students are currently part of a pilot programme using ‘Moodle,’ an online learning system. It provides learning resources and material over the internet in an environment similar to a chat room. Teachers enter content and lesson instructions online and the students respond accordingly.

Westmount is an Independent school, which has grown to occupy 15 campuses all over New Zealand – an impressive stride since it opened with a single campus in 2004. It has now become a fully integrated primary, intermediate and secondary school, enrolling students from Year 3 to 13, with 1450 students nationwide.

Associate Education Minister Heather Roy said the School had a “unique character.”

“Westmount School is a prime example of innovative thinking in action. I am impressed by the way in which you have risen to the challenge of providing your students with a full syllabus across your 15 campuses,” she said during a recent visit to the Mangere Campus of the School in Auckland.

Ms Roy said the School’s focus on developing the self-directed learning approach led to lifelong learning.

Education Forum New Zealand said self-directed learning was based on the belief that children retained what they learnt as needed or interest developed.

“Working under this umbrella allows students to have input into their own education rather than accept the one given to them.

“It is a common process amongst home schoolers and most (if not all) of Westmount’s students would normally been home schooled, for religious reasons, if it were not for the school’s existence,” it said.

Ms Roy said the National Certificate of Education Achievement (NCEA) ratings of the students at Westmount were commendable.

“The school’s quick growth shows that it is providing an education Brethren parents want for their children. I know there are particular values and aspirations dear to the Brethren community and I see your school provides a quality learning environment that upholds these values,” she said.

The Forum said Westmount’s achievements were evidence that it was possible to deliver education based on both character and curriculum.

“We could certainly do with a little more of such a system,” it said.

She said the Government was committed to investing more than $8 million on NCEA, to ensure that it is robust, fair and builds credibility with employers.

It is imperative for parents and students to be able to rely on worthwhile qualifications, she said.

“Aligning the NCEA to the revised curriculum is an important part of this work. Our goal is to develop a broad range of pathways so that you can all leave secondary school ready for work, training or further study,” she said.

Ms Roy said the Government’s ‘Trades in Schools Policy’ was in line with such an approach and that Trades Academies were being launched.