OUR LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

DESIGNING FOR THE FUTURE IN MIND

NZ school design had been in the same schooling structure for 100 years. Small classrooms, desks, tables and one sole teacher responsible for teaching it all. We redesigned and rebuilt our school in 2019. Our original school was opened in 1961, Onepoto School was once a one level traditional school made up of two main blocks. In 2018, the Labour Government at the time, invested 19 million dollars into rebuilding our school due to renewed housing development. Our new school design had to cater for a growing roll but also posed an opportunity to design with the learner and innovation in mind. The school design and spaces were carefully considered over 12 months with our students, whanau and staff. It has been an awesome journey of learning, discovery and aspirations realised. 

Re-designing the way we teach and learn in today’s schools, is critical to significant changes taking place in workplaces both in NZ and globally. In NZ, we still carry with us number 8 wire thinking, where we try to find a creative solution to a problem. Ian Taylor reminds us, “don’t throw everything away in NZ
education, because look at the great things we have achieved” (2022,NCOL TOD). The evolution of the Modern Learning Environment (MLE) became part of the schooling design and build landscape across NZ in the early 2000s, in an attempt to save money and approach NZ education, differently. I am proud to lead a school with an MLE blueprint design – fexible learning spaces for all learners.

“Teachers who work together collectively, collaboratively to understand their impact … is probably the single most important factor in this business”        (Hattie, J. 2013)