Watch: Minister Erica Stanford makes education announcement
She said all new classrooms would be designed in a flexible way to ensure better student outcomes.
Stanford said she had received overwhelming feedback from schools that open-plan classrooms were not meeting the needs of students.
"While open-plan designs were originally intended to foster collaboration, they have often created challenges for schools, particularly around noise and managing student behaviour," she said.
In many cases, open-plan classrooms reduced rather than enhanced flexibility, she said.
All new classrooms would be built using standard designs that prioritised flexibility over open-plan layouts, she said.
Stanford said glass sliding doors could be used so that classes "could be open when classes collaborate but can also close for focused learning".
... More to come
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Spinoff
8 minutes ago
- The Spinoff
Walls go back up as open-plan classroom experiment falls flat
Once hailed as the future of education, the cavernous classrooms are finally being scrapped after years of complaints, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. End of the open-plan era The Ministry of Education will no longer build open-plan classrooms, education minister Erica Stanford announced yesterday, calling time on a once-fashionable approach to teaching that critics say has failed to deliver. Open-plan classrooms, also known as modern or flexible learning environments, were rolled out from 2011 under then-education minister, National's Hekia Parata. Designed to foster collaboration and student-led learning, the model typically removed internal walls between classrooms and grouped students in large, open areas. But from the beginning, many teachers and principals raised concerns about noise, distraction and the classrooms' impact on behavioural issues. Now, after years of pushback, the government has confirmed all new classrooms will return to standard designs with the flexibility to open or close spaces as needed. The Christchurch experiment As Cate Macintosh reported last month in The Press (paywalled), Christchurch schools were at the vanguard – often unwillingly – of the open-plan movement, with many schools rebuilt post-earthquake according to the then-trendy principles of modern learning. Now they are among the most vocal in rejecting them. Rangiora High School spent $1.5 million retrofitting walls into its sprawling 3185m² open space. Shirley Boys' High spent $800,000; Avonside Girls' spent $60,000 on largely ineffectual acoustic dividers and screens. 'It was sort of the emperor's new clothes,' says Avonside Girls' principal Catherine Law of the open-plan trend. 'Everyone went '21st century learning', 'modern environments', 'no knowledge', and nobody was prepared to say, 'but that's not good teaching and learning'.' Now the tide has changed – but retrofits are expensive, and schools operating under public-private partnerships face additional barriers to making changes, Macintosh writes. In an era of fiscal restraint, many principals are asking how the government plans to help schools convert spaces they never wanted in the first place. The noise annoys There's no shortage of evidence showing what went wrong. Research has highlighted the negative impact of noise and distraction on learning, particularly for neurodiverse students. 'Nobody can learn, least of all these kids for whom education means everything to their future independence, when they're freaked out by their environment,' writes Australian former principal Adam Voigt, who once championed open-plan spaces but now calls them a failure. Studies cited in Ed Design Magazine show that noise in open classrooms can reduce speech perception by up to 75% for students sitting at the back of the room. Children with ADHD, autism or sensory sensitivities are disproportionately affected by this lack of structure and quiet. Teachers, too, have struggled with classroom management and identifying students who need extra help in cavernous, shared teaching spaces. Broader questions about modern education styles Open-plan classrooms are just one element of the 'modern learning environment' movement that took hold in the 2010s, alongside the introduction of student-led inquiry projects, cross-disciplinary teaching and the widespread use of digital devices. As the Herald's Simon Collins reported in a deep dive into the issue six years ago, teachers' roles have shifted from 'the sage on the stage' to 'the guide on the side', helping students take ownership of their learning. But as New Zealand's international rankings in literacy and numeracy declined, critics including the NZ Initiative began to question whether innovation had come at the cost of educational outcomes. Some parents and teachers remain enthusiastic about the flexibility and engagement that modern spaces can offer, especially when used selectively. Still, reviews have found little empirical evidence that open-plan designs improve learning. With this week's announcement, the tide has definitively turned – and the next challenge will be what to do with the thousands of students still learning in spaces built on a now-abandoned idea.
RNZ News
8 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Closurse of Toi Ohomai's Tokoroa campus will 'condemn another generation to poverty', mayor says
The Pūkenga Rau building where Toi Ohomai is currently in Tokoroa. Photo: South Waikato Investment Fund Trust / SUPPLIED The mayor of South Waikato says the district will be "condemned to another generation of poverty" if Toi Ohomai's Tokoroa campus closes. The polytechnic provider is to exit Te Pūkenga and re-enter regional governance from the beginning of next year, but said to meet the government's financial expectations the Tokoroa campus may have to go. Mayor Gary Petley said South Waikato already ranked among the five-most deprived communities in New Zealand. "We don't have the luxury of skipping a generation, what do we do with that?" he said. South Waikato's recent long term plan shows 23 percent of 15-24 year-olds were not currently employed or in the education or training system, one of the highest levels in the country. "There is no shortage of research and evidence that tells us a critical factor in efforts to lift people out of those statistical categories, and out of deprivation, is to invest in education," Petley said. Mayor of South Waikato Gary Petley said Tokoroa was a community in need. Photo: Libby Kirkby-McLeod / RNZ Toi Ohomai executive director Kieran Hewitson said the organisation acknowledged the deep concern surrounding the proposed closure of its Tokoroa campus. "This decision has not been made lightly. The proposal reflects a need to ensure the organisation remains financially viable and sustainable, as expected by the Government. "Declining student numbers, rising operational costs, and reduced income have made it increasingly difficult to maintain multiple campuses, including Tokoroa." Petley said if a government-funded education provider could not afford to operate in an area such as South Waikato then it needed more money, not to retreat from a community in need. "This is a short-sighted and lazy decision driven by Te Pūkenga's (the national network for all the country's 25 polytechnics) need to find $9m in savings. "They are taking the easy way out, rather than finding other ways to achieve operational savings and to become sustainable, and it's come at the detriment of the people of South Waikato." Te Hautū Kahurangi Tertiary Education Union branch co-leaders for Rotorua, Santana Ammunson and Ashton Ledger, said in a statement that not having a Tokoroa campus would be devastating for communities within the South Waikato district, undermining years of hard work to establish the South Waikato Trades Training Centre. "It would erect new barriers to learning where progress had been made under Te Pūkenga (e.g. transport, technology-enabled learning, internet connectivity), and significantly reduce locally accessible opportunities for public vocational education and training which provide strong pathways to secure employment." The news of the proposed closure came just weeks after the district lost 150 jobs when the Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mill ceased paper production. The Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mill. (File photo) Photo: Libby Kirkby-McLeod "We're just smashed again," Petley said. Ammunson and Ledger agreed the decision to close the campus would cause significant detriment to a community already reeling from the closure of the Kinleith Mill. Hewitson said Toi Ohomai recognised Tokoroa's unique challenges, including its high proportion of youth not in education, employment, or training. "However, the decision is not a reflection of the community's value or potential. Rather, it is a response to the urgent need to focus limited resources where they can have the greatest impact," she said. Hewitson said Toi Ohomai would continue to support learners in the region, but it might not be through a traditional campus setting. This was unwelcome news to the mayor who said it was only two years ago that the council, government, Trust Waikato, and the South Waikato Investment Fund Trust (SWIFT) invested heavily in a building to house Toi Ohomai's Tokoroa campus. "You can understand how disappointed we were to find that out after contributing money into that space to help develop that facility that was purposely built for that, and it only just got past two years," said Petley. SWIFT owns the Pūkenga Rau building where Toi Ohomai is currently a tenant. Chief Executive Clive Somerville said the goal of the building was to be a community facility for equipping young people and older residents with valuable skills that support workforce development. "SWIFT's relationship, and our wider community's relationship, with Toi Ohomai is pivotal in delivering on our outcomes." He said as Pūkenga Rau owner and landlord, SWIFT's next steps were to work closely with the Crown, as leaseholder for Toi Ohomai, to understand its intentions for the South Waikato. Ammunson and Ledger from the Tertiary Education Union said the government had generated a lot of 'fuss' around the financial viability of institutions and pushed all of them into a rush to right-size. "The closure of regional campuses was not what we anticipated under a government that claims to be returning decision-making to the regions and shaping a regionally-responsive and sustainable vocational education and training system. It's all dollars and no sense." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
37 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Israel strikes Damascus after warning Syria over Druze violence
Israel bombed the Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus after warning the Islamist-led Government to leave the country's Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community's southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes. Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of
