Increased student engagement, enhanced value on learning and increased flexibility and choice for students.

Over the next five years, we’re making some bold, new changes to the way we do things at CSC.

For the past two years, we have been looking at ways we can go from being a “good” school to a “great” school. This has involved extensive research into our own systems here at CSC, and we’ve also been investigating what other schools have been doing to reach similar goals. The process has included extensive staff and student feedback and data. From this groundwork, we have identified increased student engagement as our primary driver for improvement. Our desire is to see students place more value on their learning. Over the next five years, we plan to increase student engagement and value of their learning by increasing student choice and flexibility, alongside developing exciting, dynamic and evolving courses that are more relevant to real work pathways and contexts.

We have extensively reviewed our curriculum and pastoral systems and have investigated alterations and enhancements needed so that we can reach our goal. We want to make sure we retain the aspects of these systems that make CSC unique and support our students, while pushing ourselves to do better wherever we can.

This has been a big undertaking and will continue to require staff to invest their time and energy into professional development, trying new things and reviewing the effectiveness of the changes against our goals. In order to get these changes underway, a Pastoral Transition Team and a Curriculum Transition Team have been established, made up of numerous staff members, to guide these changes within the school over the coming years.

Stronger Pastoral Support Systems

We have a robust and proven pastoral system at CSC, but we believe we can do better. We want to build even stronger connections between school and home and we want to make sure all ākonga and their whānau feel cared for and valued during their time with us.

The Pastoral Transition Team has been focusing on how we best cater for our ākonga in all aspects of their school life, outside of curriculum learning. This includes student wellbeing, pathways into their future and personal development to support students to be their best selves. We also believe that we can do better by increasing whānau engagement and making sure whānau are involved in the planning and selection of pathways and personal growth of their tamariki. We want to make sure parents and caregivers are active in, and confident about, their child’s schooling. This includes maintaining the Dean structure, as well as strengthening our formteacher systems, so there are always at least two key contact people who are looking out for each child. We want to create a sense of whanaungatanga for our students and whānau - the simplest translation of whanaungatanga is “a sense of belonging”. We believe we currently do this well, but also believe that we can enhance this aspect of how we care for our students.

To get underway with these pastoral system enhancements, in 2023 we are trialling different formteacher structures for Year 9 and 13 students. For Year 9 ākonga there will be eight form teachers, supported by the Year 9 Dean, each with a group of 16 or 17 students. Smaller formclass sizes will create a real sense of whanaungatanga to enable us to better care for every student as we get to know them and their families well. Based on this trial, from 2024, we hope to extend this to other year levels.

Our Year 13 students will operate as one group during formtimes with support and guidance from their Dean, members of Senior Management and support staff, rather than being split into form classes. As the Year 13s are leaders within the school, they typically spend less time in formclasses due to peer support, peer mentoring and organising various committees. We want them to become strong at self management and enable them to have greater independence, which will be enabled by these changes. We also recognise them as young adults, and operating within a high trust model will prepare them well for life after school.

Innovative, engaging, relevant courses, where learning is paramount

Our world is changing rapidly, and there has never been a time of greater need to focus on enhancing ākonga engagement in school and their learning. The Curriculum Transition Team are focusing on everything to do with enhancing the curriculum to make it more relevant, engaging and student centred. Alongside this, we’re looking at how we can increase student choice within the curriculum. We are also putting in place changes that allow a wider and deeper range of subjects, of greater interest and relevance, to be offered to our students. All of these enhancements require changes to our structures and systems, which are explained in more detail below.

Day structure and weekly timetable changes

In 2023, there are some changes to the day structure that CSC has operated under for the past few years. This will include:

• removal of morning formtimes

• longer learning time of 65 minutes each day

• moving our Activities Period to Friday Period 5

• changing the number of afternoon formtimes to three per week

• Some interval and lunchtime timing changes

Please click this link to view the day structure and weekly timetable for 2023. There are a number of reasons why we have made these changes. There is evidence to suggest that increased blocks of learning times can increase student engagement and the value students place on their learning. It also means fewer transitions that students make on a daily basis, between classes and different teachers, which helps students make stronger connections with their teachers. Looking ahead, we plan to incorporate further, longer learning times, as well as extended blocks of pastoral time within the weekly timetable. The alterations for 2023 will ease us into these as we make further timetable changes in the future.

Removal of “streamed classes”

Currently all junior subject classes except for Mathematics are non-streamed or are of mixed ability. In addition to Mathematics, there is some streaming at Year 11 in Science and English and for English at Year 12 and 13.

Streaming is considered as “grouping students into different classes for some or all subjects based on perceived ability”. The Government doesn’t have a formal policy in place to remove streaming, but the Ministry of Education has clearly recommended that schools do not stream students.

The move away from the limited streaming we have at CSC is backed by research which shows that streaming creates and exacerbates inequity. Evidence shows it can limit learners' aspirations and engagement, negatively impacting on their expectations and self belief of achievement. It can also restrict flexibility in timetable structure, which is something we are trying to address to increase engagement and value of learning.

In Mathematics at Year 9 there will be no streaming in 2023. Instead, there will be 5 mixed ability classes where we aim to offer some choice of learning contexts for some of the Year 9 coursework, so students can learn in a context that resonates with them. At Year 10 we are gradually removing streaming by moving to just two broad ability groupings, which will then be split into classes. At Year 11 there are still different courses for students to choose from that lead into Year 12 and 13 courses.

In 2023, Level 1 English will no longer be streamed. The 101 and 102 streams have been replaced by five English classes where Year 11 students will have a broad learning programme covering both internal and external assessment content. These courses will continue to provide choice within the NCEA assessments that the students complete based on their strengths and interests. Level 2 and 3 English now has a choice of Literature or Visual courses, both based on Achievement Standards. In the future, these courses will become genre or theme programmes that students can elect to take based on their interests or planned pathways.

In 2023, Year 11 Science courses will not be streamed. Instead, there will be 4 Year 11 Science classes. These replace the streamed 101 course, which has historically had a higher external assessment load, and the streamed 102 course, which was solely internally assessed. The 2023 course will cover a range of Chemistry, Physics and Biology and allow for student-led choices on what assessments they will complete, with guidance from their Science teacher, Year 11 Dean and whānau.

Minimising Level 1 assessment load

In 2023, students in Year 11 will have a reduced internal and external assessment load. To gain Level 1 NCEA, students need to achieve 80 credits, including 10 numeracy and 10 literacy credits. Currently, the majority of ākonga at CSC have access to over 120 credits at NCEA Level 1, equating to, on average, between 20 - 30 internal and 10 external assessment opportunities across the year.

This is a huge workload for students and we are seeing unnecessary stress and burnout for many of our learners, particularly as they continue on through Level 2 and 3, where they feel they are constantly being assessed. For some, the over-assessment has resulted in students no longer valuing the learning, instead “credit farming” and being unwilling to attempt learning if it is not worth credits. We want to shift this focus back to valuing all learning for where it might take you, regardless of whether it is worth credits or not.

In 2023, each student per subject will have a maximum of either four assessment opportunities, or 18 credits on offer overall. These changes will reduce the assessment load and credit total to around 100 per student. Students will still have access to sufficient assessments and credits to pass Level 1 at Year 11 in 2023 and attain endorsements. The time gained from less NCEA assessment is available for learning and feedback and also encourages students to put greater value on the assessment opportunities they do have. Assessing less per course, overall, will allow teachers to move classroom teaching away from delivering what is often narrow content for NCEA assessment purposes, towards teaching depth and breadth of curriculum knowledge and understanding, with greater relevance to students and future pathways. The new NCEA standards, set to roll out from 2024 also have this reduced assessment load focus.

It is not compulsory for schools to assess Level 1 Standards. Ministry of Education Guidelines, many workplaces, and further study and training organisations strongly encourage students to gain Level 2 NCEA as a minimum leaving qualification. Level 1 is obtained automatically by achievement of Level 2 or higher. In 2024, we will no longer be focusing on our Year 11 students gaining Level 1 within their Year 11 year. Instead, we will be using other, less time intensive assessment and feedback methods, as well as increased learning time and newly developed courses, to better prepare ākonga for achievement at Level 2 and beyond. We will be providing whānau and the community with more information on this early in Term 1 of next year.

Semester based courses

One of the steps towards achieving greater engagement is to allow more flexibility and choice for students about what they are learning. Semester based courses, essentially half year courses, have been shown to be an effective way of achieving this. Based on our current 6 line timetable, this will allow students a wider choice of up to twelve half year courses instead of six full year subjects. Logistically, we believe that semesters will also provide extra flexibility and allow more students to take their first choice options, reducing clashes within the timetable.

In 2024, we plan to have semester based courses for Years 9, 10 and 11 ākonga/students. This means, in 2024, students in Years 9, 10 and 11 will study up to twelve, half-year courses. Semesters can be studied as stand-alone courses or sequentially in a subject for a full year. We believe this will avoid students specialising in subjects too early and provide a broader base of learning opportunities. Students will be better prepared and informed as they make subject and career pathway decisions in Year 12 and 13.

Year 12 will be semester based in 2025, and Year 13 in 2026. Again, semesters will be stand-alone courses but students may opt to study some or all subjects as full-year courses as they specialise more, particularly in Year 13.

2023 will be spent designing engaging and relevant courses for the following year, which will better link to real world pathways. In many other schools we’ve visited and spoken to, this has often looked like a topic or theme based course that draws on relevant curriculum that students opt into which best fit their personal interests or future goals. One-on-one guidance is given to students to ensure they develop a course which is relevant and meaningful for them. For example, one school offered a semester course in forensic science which used Physics, Chemistry and Biology combined in a real world application. Another school had an English-based course in sports journalism. We’ve also seen practical Maths courses aimed towards future tradespeople, or a Calculus based course for those aiming towards the medical profession or engineering. There was even a technology-based course which asked students to design a holiday home for a specific client’s needs. These are just some of the possibilities. Semester based courses might also bring about some subject integration within the school. This is where teachers from different curriculum areas work together to create courses that bridge two or more subjects.

The staged roll-out of semester courses aligns with the new NCEA Standards, with Level 1 in 2024 followed by Level 2 in 2025 and Level 3 in 2026.

In summary

We aspire to be a great school. Over the next five years, Central Southland College will be rolling out a range of changes and enhancements to move us from our current “good” status, to greatness.

Our primary driver is increased student engagement and value of their learning. We will be doing this by:

• strengthening our pastoral systems to better support our ākonga and include whānau in learning conversations and pathway planning

• altering our day structure to provide flexibility within the timetable and increase learning time

• removing streaming to address inequality and enhance student choice and agency of their learning

• minimising Level 1 assessment load to reduce over-assessment and enhance student wellbeing and value of learning

• shifting the focus in Year 11 to learning, rather than attaining Level 1 within the academic year

• developing innovative, relevant, engaging semester based courses

If you would like to know more about any of these changes for 2023 and beyond, please keep an eye out for our short information video clips, which will be released next week. These further outline the specifics of each aspect of our enhancements. There will be further information available early in 2023, particularly around NCEA Level 1 in 2024. We will be providing opportunities in the new year, both digital and face-to-face, for community comment and feedback on these changes. As always, please also contact us directly at the College if you wish to arrange a time to discuss any enhancements in person.

We are greatly appreciative of the support of all the staff at CSC and Board of Trustees as we work through these enhancements. We are looking forward to seeing these changes in action in our school and hope that you are excited to be part of this journey with us.

Curriculum and Pastoral Transition Teams