Catholic colleges sign up to Community of Schools scheme

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

Aquinas College and John Paul College are among 222 schools that will be part of the Investing in Educational Success [IES] scheme that aims to spread the best teaching and leadership.

The Government announced the scheme in 2014. It was a major announcement ahead of last year’s election.

Schools in IES will get more time to focus specifically on working with other schools to lift student achievement.

The scheme will use $359 million over four years to create Communities of Schools [COS] where principals and teachers are paid extra to collaborate and provide additional teacher-learning time for the schools involved.

So far 29 communities have been formed.

New Zealand’s education system gives a high degree of control to each individual state and state-integrated school and its board of trustees, and studies have pointed to a lack of collaboration as a major problem.

The IES programme aims to help rectify that.

While opposed by the primary school teachers’ union, the programme eventually won support of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association.

Some principals believe the reform could create the most radical shift in schooling since Tomorrow’s Schools.

A new principal role will help oversee each Community of Schools and it is anticipated that four or five teachers will work across the schools to share their expertise. These roles will come with extra salary.

There will also be new roles and funding for teachers to stay in their own classrooms and have other teachers observe their good teaching, and how learning takes place – about one in 10 teachers will be able to take up this role if they apply.

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