Editor
Schools where principals have given thought to what That however could be about to end, unless the school’s roll education is and what it is trying to achieve tend to be vibrant, can be increased by two. Halfmoon Bay School, categorised fun, exciting places full of risk taking. Most schools would amongst the most isolated in the country, will lose one of their subscribe to the notion that education is about acquiring skills, two teachers if they do not push their school roll out to 26. It is knowledge and values and also about socialisation or learning hard to fathom the rules that would remove 50 per cent of the about existing traditions, customs and social mores. Some teaching staff and negatively affect the achievement opportunities theorists suggest there is a third function of education and that of 24 children, just to meet an arbitrarily set staffing formula. is to free the student sufficiently to generate their own thoughts In their typically creative fashion the Stewart Island school’s and ideas and allow them to creatively apply them. This facet Board of Trustees’ Chair is now promoting an offer to any makes education unpredictable and creates insecurity. Whilst the New Zealand family to come down to Stewart Island and be first two functions can be easily controlled by the teacher, it is accommodated for a month (if they have at least two school age the third function that requires children of course) to try out life on the risk and courage on the part The disconnected thinking Island, in the hope that the family will of the teacher, whose job it decide to stay on. is to create the environment between politics and the It’s not like the Chair and indeed within which students can feel profession would be risible, if the the principal have not already pleaded confident and safe to handle their case to the Ministry. It just seems their new-found freedom. results weren’t so tragic. that the Ministry doesn’t have the Arguably it is this third factor flexibility or the will to accommodate that provides students with the highest levels of satisfaction, as extraordinary circumstances. they take charge, exploring their own questions and thinking Common sense would suggest that a system formula cannot and creating their own learning. be applied evenly across vastly different sized schools and get Despite policy makers and politicians all wanting predictability the same result. Inevitably there will be devastating effects on and risk-free measures for education, and as little subjectivity as the small school. A larger school might absorb the loss by being possible, principals are increasingly encouraging their teachers flexible and creative with the remaining staff. No matter how hard to allow students to cut loose and make their own learning the Halfmoon Bay School principal tries to be creative, there will connections through their own experiences. be no remaining staff members with whom she can be flexible. There is no better example of this construct of education in It simply doesn’t make sense. action, than on Stewart Island where the children experience It is little wonder that principals become frustrated. Their freedoms both within and outside of their school which ambitions and aspirations for the children in their schools are constantly lead to fresh ideas and creative ways to solve problems. constantly impeded by policies and legislation that are way In turn this leads to high levels of confidence, self- worth and the out of step with twenty-first century educational thinking and motivation to perform at the highest level. It is a success story practice. School leaders are rising to meet the challenge of the extraordinaire (see pp.24–31 for the full story). international call to produce creative and critical thinkers, At Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island, the achievement encouraging students to push the boundaries, to take risks and levels of the children, including Māori children, throughout both to take charge, whilst the politicians of the world are weighing the junior and senior classes, exceed the national averages. The them down with demands for compulsory standardised measures children are quite clear about factors that help them do so well of achievement, mindless data gathering for accountability and and they include having strong healthy relationships with their the application of punitive and petty rules. The disconnected teachers and access to individual teaching as they need it, even thinking between politics and the profession would be risible, though there are four different levels in both the senior and junior if the results weren’t so tragic. classes for the two teaching staff to accommodate. This, they say, gives them the confidence and assurance to pursue ever higher and higher goals across the whole curriculum.