Top academic initiative

BY: LUKE PARKER

Students at Massey High School are part of a ground-breaking academic programme producing amazing results.

Facilitators use data from students, which includes those from the nor-west, to set targets based on their strengths and weaknesses.

Last year’s head boy Sam Williams found the programme very helpful.

"We got an initial start-up with our deans or academic counsellors and they helped us understand where we were at, what we were going to do in the future and what we needed at our current point in time.

"It looked at all the tests you sat in each subject, so you could see if you needed to work in any specific areas."

The 17-year-old plans to do a conjoint bachelor of arts and law degree at Auckland University this year.

Deputy head girl for 2009, Leanne Stewart, says pupils are given a list of short and long-term goals to work towards.

"It’s helped me get an early grasp of what I need to do to get into my career goals. Setting the goals meant that I could look at what my weaknesses were in each subject and what I needed to work on to be able to get the credits for university."

The 18-year-old plans to do a bachelor of health science as a gateway into medicine at Auckland University this year.

Principal Bruce Ritchie says the whole concept came together after he’d made a few trips to schools and educational institutes overseas.

"I felt we could do a lot more in terms of guiding and advising students and counselling them academically."

Mr Ritchie says the programme has sparked a lot of interest with parents.

"We have brought them on board with special parent-teacher meetings."

The school has been running the programme for three years and is seeing a significant difference in its student academic levels.

"After the first year there was a definite leap forward across the whole school. Maori and Pasifika student levels improved the most," Mr Ritchie says.

Sam Smith is employed as a student achievement manager and is skilled in data analysis.

She has been seconded to Auckland University under a programme called Starpath which is carrying out a formal evaluation of the programme.

She says a profile of each student is built up to give an instant overview of where they’re at.

That means teachers can intervene before it’s too late if students are struggling in certain areas.

- © Fairfax NZ News