Teachers and parents at an independent Auckland secondary school can now track students' progress, successes and challenges online in real time, thanks to a special piece of software.
King's College has developed the system to personalise students' learning and provide greater transparency, says headmaster Simon Lamb.
"The idea of 'one size fits all' education is no longer appropriate and schools are increasingly required to provide a personalised education for students," Lamb says.
"We no longer see students in big cohorts that are expected to follow patterns – but recognise that they are individuals to whom schools should respond. Having granular information on each student's progress enables us to respond in a granular way to those students and meet their needs."
All testing and assessments are available to parents through online live data tracking, including co-curricular activities, so school and families can see how each student is progressing on multiple fronts.
Lamb says all three partners — teachers, parents and the students themselves — can see that data so successes can be celebrated or, if a student is having difficulties, that can be identified and early intervention arranged to help them.
The system is based on the college's 'all-round' teaching and learning philosophy, which sees students exploring eight key dimensions during their time at the school: learning, internationalism, democracy, environment, adventure, leadership, service and spirituality.
The data is tracked by a team of year-level coordinators who track and analyse successes but can also highlight where concerns are becoming apparent early on.
"This means smaller issues don't grow into large issues because we have seen them coming," Lamb says.
Senior students in years 12 and 13 at the college work one-on-one with academic mentors. Support is also offered to students at all levels of the school through the house system.
Junior boy students, who start at the college from year 9, are encouraged to take a broad range of subjects and not to specialise too early. In year 11 (for girls and boys) , they can choose to study for NCEA or Cambridge International qualifications, or a combination of the two, before fixing on one pathway for years 12 and 13.
"What qualification they eventually want to pursue comes down to the individual students and their parents, in discussion with the careers advisors we have here at the school," says Lamb. "Each system has its advantages for some students – which might be different for others. It's a matter of looking at the needs of each and what might fit them best."
The ability to personalise student learning at King's is also enhanced by something most state schools can no longer deliver: small class sizes.
"The ability of the college to look after individual students is encouraged by the fact we can deliver our offerings to smaller class sizes. It's something we take for granted but those new to the school are always amazed by what we deliver," says Lamb.
The average class size is 15 students, with a maximum of 22 or 23; some courses are delivered to classes as small as seven or eight, he says: "We control the roll to maintain those class sizes, because we think it's very important."
Lamb thinks personalising the learning experience for students (and making it compulsory for them to take part in sports and cultural activities) is vital in preparing them for the future beyond King's, whether that is higher education or the workforce.
"In a competitive tertiary environment, students need to have great academic results but they also need to have an all-round education," he says. "We need to prepare them for independence and to be self-reliant, to teach them what to do when they are not sure what to do, to enable them to be self-motivated and self-controlled and to have the ability to generate their own futures.
"We give them support at King's through the house system and mentoring but, at heart, we are encouraging them to be independent, because they will need to be once they leave."