A term that you hear a lot about in education these days is Future Focused Learning.

In simple terms FFL is about preparing our students for THEIR future. Alice Leung, an Australian educator has written a great blog outlining what future focused learning is, along with a simple video that explains the future our young people are heading into and the skills they will need to succeed.

https://aliceleung.net/2016/08/06/what-is-future-focused-learning/

Like most other schools around the country (and in fact the world) Otago Girls’ is grappling with how we can most effectively deliver future focused programmes of learning in ways that reflect both what our community values and what we already do well. Earlier this week our Senior Leaders and Heads of Department travelled to Auckland where we visited four high schools that were designed and built with future focused learning at their heart. Alfriston College, Ormiston Senior College, Hobsonville Point Secondary School and Albany Senior High School provided us with examples of innovative learning environments, integrated programmes of learning, a range of learning approaches and some very passionate educators. Each school reflected the community in which it operates, with very distinctive differences in their approach as a result.

As a result of this fact finding trip we now have a lot of information to synthesise and make sense of. As well as presenting us with some new ideas and ways of working, these visits helped reinforce to us the many things we do extremely well already and was very affirming of much of our practice and the changes we have already made.

The next stage in our journey is for those staff who took part in this trip to report back to the full staff.

In Term 2 the Board of Trustees will be carrying out a community consultation. The purpose of this is to provide an opportunity for us to hear from you about what you value in regard to your daughter’s education here at Otago Girls’, what your priorities are and the direction you want the school to take. This information, along with the research we are doing (including the Auckland visit) will help inform our plans for the next five to ten years. In preparation for this consultation I will be posing a question in each newsletter to get you thinking!

Fact: It is widely believed that today’s students will have 17 different employers in their lives and will take part in five different career types.

Question: What should Otago Girls’ be doing to prepare your daughter for this world?