'Flawed concept': Canterbury high school ditches open-plan rooms

Otago Daily Times

05-06-2025

A second Christchurch school has made the costly move to ditch its near-new open-plan classrooms.
Shirley Boys' High school is spending $800,000 to transform its open-plan classrooms, built in 2019, into single-cell rooms.
When Shirley Boys' was rebuilt after being damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes, the Ministry of Education was in the midst of a push for open plan classrooms, the Innovative Learning Environments.
Shirley Boys' was one of a number of Christchurch schools being rebuilt or repaired which joined the movement.
Six years after its brand new building opened, Shirley Boys' principal Tim Grocott said it was obvious the open-plan classrooms were not working for students or staff.
"The level of distraction was just too high. There was too much movement going on. They can hear what is happening in the class next door - "oh that's sounds interesting over there, I wonder what they are doing". Particularly if something was being played on TV or anything like that. So that level of distraction was a negative factor."
Grocott said the shared spaces meant that teachers had to do what they could to limit noise, whereas now they could teach in far more engaging ways.
"To be a character, to be at the front and tell a story and have the boys laughing and all of those sorts of things that add to the enjoyment of learning - they couldn't do it. Because that would be distracting other classes around them."
In 2024, Shirley Boys' also did a formal inquiry into how students and staff were finding the open-plan rooms, and Grocott said the widespread unhappiness that was found meant they needed to respond.
It will cost the school $800,000 to make the change, and Grocott said the school was in the lucky position of being able to cover that from school reserves put aside by the board over the last 10 years.
The first part of the changeover was completed in the last school holidays, and the final stage would be done in the next school holidays.
The feedback so far had been overwhelmingly positive and instantaneous.
"Hugely positive feedback. The staff on the first day were absolutely thrilled. One of our teachers was hugging the walls in her classroom because she was so thrilled to have walls. But the boys are just much happier," Grocott said.
Grocott said his view was that open-plan classrooms were a flawed concept that just did not work for his school.
A year ago, Rangiora High School finished the process of changing an open-plan building, built in 2018, to single-cell classes.
Rangiora High principal Bruce Kearney said the feedback had been amazing.
"The results have been a huge shift in engagement, in attendance, in achievement. It is not what I was expecting. I was expecting a small shift, but its gone through the roof, its made a massive difference in everything in the school."
Kearney said while the open-plan classrooms didn't work for his school, they may work for others, and his key bit of advice was to review them, and make changes if needed.
Minister of Education Erica Stanford said open-plan classrooms did work well for some schools, but she said she knew many schools wanted to switch back to single-cell rooms.
She said that decision was up to the schools.
"It seems to be a fad that comes and goes, but I think that the evidence is really tending more and more these days towards to making sure there are spaces that are quiet, potentially modular for children to learn. Especially for children with additional learning needs."
In a statement, the Ministry of Education's Head of Property, Sam Fowler, said the ministry was aware some schools had converted open-plan classrooms to single-cell classrooms, and that there were schools where such work was currently under way or planned for the future.
The ministry did not have figures on how many schools had or wanted to convert such spaces.
Fowler said schools in New Zealand were self-governing through their boards, meaning they were responsible for decisions regarding their daily operations and teaching and learning programmes. This included choices about learning space configurations, and whether classrooms were open-plan or single-cell.
He said new and redeveloped school buildings were designed for flexibility, enabling schools to tailor spaces to their preferred approach, but the ministry was also implementing a programme of increased standardisation to ensure new buildings provide consistent and adaptable solutions for schools.
President of the Post Primary Teachers Association Chris Abercrombie said the merits or otherwise of open-plan classrooms was a frequent topic for teachers.
He said the open-plan rooms could have positives, but required training on how best to use it.
"Apart from one or two exceptions, very little thought seems to be given to that professional development. How to use the space effectively, how to teach there, how to often team teach, how to work together in that manner is often missing in that space."
Abercrombie said the clear push from the ministry towards open-plan classrooms had died off, but the PPTA would still like to see proper research into their impact.