An innovative new curriculum introduced At Ashburton College this year for Year 9 students has been hailed a success by parents, students and college staff.

And that has given the school the confidence to make the same learning option available to Year 10 students next year, said college principal Ross Preece.

The pilot curriculum is based around developing students’ resilience, creative problem solving and communication skills. This year it was optional for Year 9 students and next year it will become an option for both Year 9 and Year 10.

About 60 per cent of Year 9 students are currently involved in the pilot that involves a project based learning model, integrating some subjects rather than working on the traditional standalone subject model, Preece said.

Uptake of the pilot for Year 9 and 10 had been good, with students in about half of next year’s Year 9 and 10 classes working with the new learning model.

At the end of this year outcomes would be measured across all Year 9 classes using the innovation and traditional curricula, but there were already some positive results, he said.

“We do know the stack of negative pastoral entries are far fewer for the innovation students than for those on the traditional curriculum. And we know in terms of student engagement it works.”

The college was making a gentle move into the new curriculum to allow parents and students to choose the system they believed best suited them.

While the learning approach might be different, parents would still know how their child was achieving in standard subject, but they would also receive a report on the things that were engaging their child, Preece said.

Project based learning was already being piloted in a number of other schools around New Zealand and the new model is similar to the learning environment students were accustomed to at intermediate and primary level.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 28 October 2019