Associate Education Minister David Seymour. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A high school offering traditional activities and languages for Pasifika girls will open its doors to 120 students in Term 1 next year.
Sisters United Academy, sponsored by Auckland youth organisation Sisters United, is one of the latest charter schools to be announced by the coalition.
It will teach students in years 9 to13, with those in years 12 and 13 offered flexible combinations of classroom learning, internships, tertiary study, overseas opportunities, or work experience.
Sisters United co-founder Kendal Collins said the new school would be a game changer for her community.
Sisters United co-founder Kendal Collins. Photo: Supplied / Sisters United
"It's really a future focused school for our girls and Pasifika-led and culture-centered, so the students learn through their culture, their storytelling, it's through the language.
"Each girl gets to learn their heritage language through the school and it's not just an add on. The culture is embedded into every subject that they learn. It's very personalised."
Students' days would be split into two parts, she said.
"The morning is academic. There's a mix of learning they can do, so we learn what styles they learn, whether that be visual, teaching with one teacher at the front or group learning.
"Then in the afternoon it's very life skills, passion based. They get to concentrate on life skills that they need for the real world, hands-on learning as well as passions...and that's done through project based learning."
Collins said her background in social work meant she was normally working with students as the "ambulance at the bottom of the cliff", dealing with mental health, wellbeing, behaviour or family issues.
She was beyond excited to open the school next year.
"This is something that's been needed within our community for so long now and this charter school opportunity is the perfect way to really show that our kids need to learn in a different way and that these different schools that are coming out, is such a blessing because not everybody suits the mainstream system.
"Our goal is to create an environment where our girls are so excited to turn up everyday because they love what they're learning, they love who they're learning with and they love the teachers who are teaching them."
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said every child deserved the opportunity to learn and grow in ways that were more specific to their needs.
"Charter schools show education can be different if we let communities bring their ideas to the table. These schools have more flexibility in return for strictly measured results.
"The charter school equation is: the same funding as state schools, plus greater flexibility plus stricter accountability for results, equals student success.
"There are more ideas in the communities of New Zealand than there are in the government. That's why we open ideas to the wider community, then apply strict performance standards to the best ones."
Seymour said Sisters United Academy joined four new charter schools, including a sports academy, that would open in Term 1 next year.
"This takes the total number of charter schools to 16. We expect more new charter schools to be announced before the end of the year, along with the first state schools to convert."
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