Kaiapoi school's creative solution to staffing challenges
Kaiapoi North School students Bonnie (9, left), Alyssa (10) and Indi (10) show principal Jason Miles what they have been learning about wetas. Photo: David Hill / North Canterbury News
While extra teacher release time has posed a headache for some schools, a Kaiapoi school has found creative ways to manage it.
Kaiapoi North School board of trustees presiding member Greg Thompson said a growing school roll and extra funding for classroom release time has allowed the school to employ specialist teachers.
Those specialist teachers offer lessons in art, te reo and the environment, rather than the school using relief teachers to fill the gaps.
Under the collective employment agreement with the Ministry of Education, primary school teachers are entitled to 2.5 hours of classroom release time per week.
The additional classroom release time has meant schools have needed to find more relief teachers, at a time when many schools have been facing teacher shortages.
With a growing roll of around 550 students, it allows Kaiapoi North School to employ two extra teachers for four days a week.
''It allows us to offer a more diverse curriculum and it is often those extra-curricula activities which bring kids to school,'' Mr Thompson said.
Principal Jason Miles said the teacher release time had increased from one hour a week three years ago.
It has allowed the school to employ Nicole Duxfield as a specialist art teacher, while Janine Rust offers lessons in Te Reo Māori and the environment.
''The increase in release time has been gratefully received as it recognises teacher workload, but it has also meant that schools have to work out how this is best managed,'' Mr Miles said.
''For our students, this has become a time they really look forward too because of the dynamic learning which is happening.''
He said the release time allowed teachers time for professional development, planning, marking and observing other classrooms.
Ms Duxfield and Ms Rust work in together in an open plan, double classroom, working with two classes in the morning and two in the afternoon.
''It is a good amount of time. It used to be one hour, so we had five different groups in a day,'' Ms Rust said.
''But now we get them for the half day.''
The pair come up with themes, with a focus for term two being fabric and fibre.
It will be centred around Kaiapoi, with students learning about the history of the town's woollen mill, harakeke flaxweaving and knitting, with whānau invited to be involved.
''It is wonderful. I'm loving it,'' Ms Duxfield said.
''Some students will have parents or grandparents who have been involved with the mill, so it will make it relevant for them.''
• LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
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