Anita Yarwood is the director, or principal, of Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery, a special character school teaching Years 1-13 located at the heart of Christchurch. Learning is personalised and based on students’ passions and exploration; she tells Principals Today.
A School with a Special Character
The History of Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery
After Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti and Discovery1 were both destroyed in the 2011 earthquakes, they were merged into one: Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery was formed in 2014. The school was split over two sites until the shift to the purpose-built school in 2019. “This building is placed in the central city to support the philosophy of learning without walls,” Anita says. “Our students can use the wider city as a classroom.”
Philosophy of Learning Without Walls
Students have agency over learning and are encouraged to explore their interests aided by a learning advisor who meets regularly with them and their whānau. Timetables help students personalise their learning, with all subjects at all levels. “Inclusion in a class is determined by the student’s interest and understanding of the subject. Subject selection is choice-based. We have a range of learning options for students.”
Personalised Learning for Years 1-13
Diverse Learning Options
Ao Tawhiti offers traditional NCEA-assessed subjects and Hapori classes that aren’t accessed academically but support competency development, such as volunteering, tramping, biology, sustainability or Māori Art at their Climate Action Campus. PINs – passion and interest workshops – are also facilitated. Students in Years 1-6 learn literacy and numeracy in the morning and self-driven inquiry and project-based learning for the rest of the day.
Student-Led Learning
Senior students can choose Gateway work experience in a range of fields, including neurosurgery and horse dentistry. They can also be enrolled at Ara or complete University of Canterbury courses. Intermediate and senior students can hold a trust licence that allows them to sign in and out of school during the day to use central city resources like Tūranga library, the gym, and the art gallery, or to buy lunch. Offsite learning is another option, popular for students who are also athletes, dancers, horse riders, and gymnasts, to name a few.
Supporting Senior Students’ Ambitions
What does the average day at Ao Tawhiti look like?
The beauty of this school is that there is no average day. We have blanket consent from all our caregivers to take students out into the central city at any time during the school day so our students, staff and caregivers are in and out of the building, taking advantage of spontaneous learning opportunities and working within individualised learning programs. As students get older, the number of compulsory classes that they have to take decreases, so every student’s program will look slightly different.
What qualifies a student to be able to attend Ao Tawhiti?
All learners are welcome at Ao Tawhiti, but we have found that students who are successful are the students who are willing to take an active role in their learning, who have passions and interests that they want to explore, who are confident working in partnership with Learning Advisors and have parents who are able to be involved in their child’s education.
Misconceptions About Ao Tawhiti
What are the biggest misconceptions about your school?
A misconception in education is that learning isn’t rigorous unless the content and outcomes are pre-determined by the teacher and quantifiable against a rubric or schedule. Students are deemed successful when they pass standardised tests that they sit at prescribed ages.
At our school, learning is messy and interesting and comes from opportunities and experiences, as well as instructional teaching. Accessing learning outside the traditional classroom doesn’t negate the value of the learning. Personalised programs don’t stop students from being able to access an NCEA qualification, as evidenced by our results.
69% of our school leavers achieve NCEA Level 3, and this is a 10% increase over the last three years. Our co-requisite results sit above the national average, and our younger students are making excellent progress in developing foundational literacy and numeracy. They also have the confidence and skill set to enter intermediate and secondary education, which are primed for success.
What do you think about charter schools, and how does Ao Tawhiti differ from one?
We aren’t a charter school. We are a state-funded area school. Our special character gives us flexibility over curriculum delivery. However, we work within the same operational and legislative guidelines as any other state school in Aotearoa. I am aware that we are in a privileged position to have the flexibility of a special character school.
Our existing schools are fabulous. The reason that local schools can’t always meet every learner’s needs often comes from a lack of resources. I would rather see the charter school funding given to existing state schools, who already have a relationship with their communities and are doing a great job.
Challenges in Education and Equity
What do you think are the most important skills for students to have leaving school?
Foundational literacy and numeracy are important. However, I think that capabilities are just as vital as skills. We aim for our school leavers to have the capacity for critical thinking and collaboration. The capacity for empathy and respect. The ability to view the world through a lens that is bigger than themselves and the resilience to overcome inevitable challenges.
What are your biggest concerns and challenges as an educator?
A challenge that educators face is challenging inequity within the education system. All educators have student needs at the centre of their work, and it is heartbreaking to work within a wider system where the students with the most need are the least prioritised or acknowledged. Culturally responsive professional development, learning and guidance support are fundamental, and these aren’t prioritised in government funding. Two examples directly impacting us are the cutting of funding for Te Ahu o te Reo and not having staffing for a Learning Support Coordinator because we were in the wrong tranche of Kāhui Ako, even though 48% of our senior students are eligible for Special Assessment Conditions.
Funding inequities are enhanced through a narrowing of assessment criteria, as students whose skills and capabilities sit outside standardised assessment are deemed as failing. This is crazy, as all learners are capable of success, and diversity is invaluable. An example is the co-requisite assessments, which students have to pass before they are able to be awarded their NCEA qualification. Students are literate and numerate in a range of ways, as evidenced through naturally occurring examples that are relevant to their lives and culture. Relying on one test to determine eligibility to access a school leaver’s qualification short-changes a lot of students, all of whom deserve recognition.
How intense is the educator’s role at Ao Tawhiti? How can we better support the well-being of educators?
An educator’s role is intense in any educational setting. Kaiako and kaimahi are unsung heroes, spending at least six hours a day navigating the needs of numerous children and young people. They are challenged by external factors that can’t always be alleviated within schools and ECEs. However, they can be alleviated by government policies to effectively deal with poverty, systemic racism, mental health challenges, eco-anxiety and so on. If governments could work beyond a three-year election cycle and invest in long-term systemic change so all children come to school feeling secure and ready to learn, then educators could focus on teaching and learning instead of having to be social support workers first and educators second.
The government could also better support educators by trusting their professional judgement around effective teaching and learning so that curriculum design, pedagogy and resource prioritisation are based on the voice of the educators doing the work inside the classroom, as they are the experts in their own field.
Building Future-Ready Learners
How high are attendance rates, and how self-driven is a student’s learning?
Because we have a range of learning opportunities that sit outside traditional classroom learning, we measure students’ attendance through their engagement in a learning program. We have students who are working in the building and can be marked as present as they attend their curriculum classes. We also have students who are offsite learning and these students have to show evidence of their learning before they are marked as present. We have an ongoing tension between running flexible programs while still being held to account within a fixed model.
We have a range of students, some of whom are fully engaged and self-driven. These students take advantage of opportunities and work hard to create their own learning programs. We also have students who are second-chance learners who find our school culture an adjustment, as they aren’t used to the freedom that we offer. We have students who struggle to find intrinsic motivation or are
still working out what they are interested in exploring. We work hard to support all our students in achieving success.
Is there anything else you wish to mention?
I feel very proud and privileged to be the Tumuaki of Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery. I am fortunate to work with wonderful staff, students and caregivers in a unique educational context. I am proud of the work we are doing to future-proof our young people, with a focus on the development of capabilities and our willingness to support students to lead their own learning. We have a student initiative fund where students can apply for funds to support their projects. We lead a satellite campus called the Climate Action Campus Ōtautahi. This is a campus that gives young people and children the skills to challenge the negative impact of climate change. Our kaupapa is to enable the child to be at the centre of their learning, and we aim to achieve this by operating a high-trust and flexible space where we underpin personalised programs with foundational learning.
