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Article Aussie’s First ‘School of the Future’ With NO Year Levels or Classrooms

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Australian pupils will step through the doors of a new type of school next week, a school that doesn’t have classrooms, exams or levels.

Lindfield Learning Village located in Sydney’s North Shore is the first of it’s kind in Australia and this year the new facility, which cost the NSW Government $40million to build, is offering places to kids from kindergarten age through to Year 10, shared Daily Mail.

The ‘school of the future’ teaches children through project-based activities and aims to give them the skills to solve ‘real world problems’.

This means instead of learning subjects in a single fashion, a child will learn in a collaborative way about multiple disciplines.

There will be teachers, but children will be also be mentored by others who are older than them as well as learn from mixed aged peers.

There aren’t assessments either – at least not in a formal sense.

Principal Stephanie McConnell told the ABC pupils will be evaluated ‘but perhaps not in the way we understand assessment in a traditional environment’.

‘A student might choose a particular point in time when they feel they can demonstrate the learning required to meet a particular learning outcome.’

There is no classrooms with teaching instead being done around ‘waterholes’ which are spaces dedicated to big groups, ‘campfires’ – spaces for small groups working with a teacher and ‘caves’ – spaces for children who want to work on their own.

Not everyone loves the concept though

Many people weren’t convinced this type of educational system was a solution to current learning problems.

One woman wrote: ‘I sort of cringed while watching this. I think giving kids real life problem solving skills is great but there’s so many aspects of this model that are unrealistic.

‘Wouldn’t this model be better if it was paired with traditional learning, particularly English and maths so they actually have the foundational knowledge to be able to solve the problems?’

Another questioned the school’s model of progressing children by ability rather than by age and assessment.

‘The problem with these educational fads is that they think they have to abandon everything that is ‘old’ when in reality the answer is somewhere in the middle.’

Another said, ‘I taught in a school with a similar approach/philosophy. It was beneficial for some students, but for many, it failed the students, which is why I had to leave after 2 years.

‘Let’s hope this new school has done their research. I hope it works well and is a great success because our current education system needs an overhaul.’

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  • Yeah, but they do need some very specific skills to obtain qualifications.

    Reply

  • Different study ways suit different children. We do not all learn the same. Lucky for me I work from home so can help out any of my children who have trouble at school. I think this type of school would be idea for my youngest son as he can not cope with what normal schools are like. Home schooling him does have its fun bits but prefer him to attend school with his twin sister.

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  • I feel that this type of education would be beneficial if coupled with traditional schooling. Giving a mix of formal education and life skills

    • I agree with you! Benefits from both so put them together and it sounds great

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  • Interesting educational concept, would be interesting to see the children’s progress after this schooling

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  • Interesting but does no assessments exclude them from going on for further study or is that why they don’t offer year 11 and 12.

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  • I think it’s an interesting concept. Not totally new as much of this way of learning you also find in Rudolf Steiner schools.

    • Indeed. They are schools that can have a lot of benefits.

      • There are indeed a variety of schools available in Australia to suit all children.

    Reply

  • There are many different schools and ways of teaching and whatever works for children and families is fine.

    Reply

  • I’m not sure that this will work. It’s probably not the way of the future.

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  • It will be interesting to see how these students fair.

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  • I can see a lot of kids are going to fall through the cracks with no assessments at all to find any learning problems
    Interesting the headline indications no year levels or assessments. Read the article pupils complete year 10.

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  • I like the idea and I think only time will tell how many kids will actually benefit from this system. I must admit that if it was proposed to me when my daughter started kindy, I would have probably gone for it.

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  • Only time will tell how these students fare in the long run.

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  • I am all for hands on learning. I think the current model of using technology to learn is letting children down. Kids need to learn the basics. They need to know how to read, write, spell, and do basic maths. We should be encouraging their natural learning styles to ensure they are meeting their potential. If this type of school works for some children, then great. It certainly won’t work for all children though and if their learning style doesn’t fit this then they shouldn’t be allowed to attend. Too easy for them to be left behind.

    Reply

  • This is a very interesting concept. I think academically it could work quite well but socially students may struggle.

    Reply
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