Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / A New Model of Schooling

Transcript

A New Model of Schooling · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to a Happy Family's podcast. School refusal continues
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: to be one of those conversations that keeps on coming
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: up and alternative forms of schooling. It's something that I'm
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: fascinated by because I've got a child who is homeschooling,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: got a child who's going through a vocational and educational
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: kind of school experience with an industry school, and I've
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: got a couple of other kids who, let's just say,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it was a battle. It was such a battle. And
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: every single day I'm talking to parents who, for any
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: number of reasons, are trying to find models of a
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: school that will work for their family, because maybe they're traveling,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: or because their children have extracurricular activities that are kind
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of becoming their lives, or I mean, the list is endless.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: There are so many reasons that school doesn't work for
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: many families in its standard format. Today a conversation with
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Joe Baker. Joe is running what I think is one
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of the most interesting online school opportunities that you might
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: ever come across, and it's coming out of one of
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the more prestigious Melbourne independent schools. In other words, extremely
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: high quality education, but in a way that possibly suits
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: your family more than the standard school situation. For any
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of those reasons, I'm fascinated by it. I still don't
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: know all the details, but that's why I asked Joe
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: to come on the podcast today. She is next stay
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: with us. Hello, and welcome to the Happy Families podcast,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: where you get real parenting solutions every single day. This
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: is Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. My name is doctor
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Justin Coulson. Joanna Baker joins me today. Joanna is the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: head of campus at Halebury Pangaea, which is Victoria's first
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: independent private online school. So I'm just going to say
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: this at the outset before I go through Joe's bio.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: In some ways, this might sound like it's some kind
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of an advertorial for Halebury Pangaea and being an independent
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: online private school. It's not. Well, I mean, it kind
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: of is, if you want to look through that filter.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: But I haven't brought Joe one to have this conversation
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: so that we can sprew Halebury. I'm doing it because
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: it's really hard to get great alternative schooling options, especially
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: for online, and when I discovered what they were doing,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I just thought this is a conversation that people will
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: genuinely be interested in, So stick with me. Here's my
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: introduction for where we're going here. In an era where
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: online learning has assumed an increasingly important role in Australian schools,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Joe Baker actively champions it's potential to provide high quality
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: education to students from all backgrounds and regions. So here's
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Joe's background. Currently Head of Campus at Haileybury Panjit, which
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: is as I said, Victoria's first private online school, launched
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: a couple of years ago in January twenty twenty three,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: following the COVID challenges that Victoria had. I won't see
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: anything more than that it's a fully online school at
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: CATUS to students in years five through twelve who live
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: across Victoria and the NT. We're going to talk about
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: why it's just those two regions shortly. Joe has a
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: stack of experience in schooling. She was head of Secondary
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: at Trinity Anglican in Cairns, also held a bunch of
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: senior positions at Melbourne Girls Grammar. Has a Master's of
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Education for the University of Melbourne and qualifications in cognitive
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: psyche as well as educational leadership and management. It was
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a longer intro than normal, Joe, but you've done a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: whole lot of really interesting stuff and I'm just so
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: fascinated in what you're doing with Haileybrey Pangaea. Thanks for
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: being on the pod.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: It's such a pleasure.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Justin, and you're really keen to share a
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: bit about what we've learned here at I had Haylearbury
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: about how we can remove some of those barriers to education,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: whether they're geographical or indeed other challenges that students have
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: and provide a new choice for families in the educational space,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: particularly in Victoria and in Northern Territory.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: All right, let's kick straight into it. I want to
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: start off with this whole idea of Pangaea, so people
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: in Victoria would be aware of Haileybury from around the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: country perhaps less. So it's an late private school. It's
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: just got all the resources and all the facilities. It's
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a wonderful school. But this online idea you've called it
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Haileybri Pangaea. It's been running for two three years now.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: What's Pangaea helped me to imagine? I'm two years old
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: and I don't understand anything. What is what is Pangaea.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: What's seven years old?
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: That is a great question. It's when we do get
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: quite often. We had a lot of different names in
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: the hat for our online at campus when we were
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: developing it. We went with Pangaea really based on the
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: idea of the super continent Pangaea. We wanted to and
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: that's something that our geography students do learn about about
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: that have that idea.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: Of I suppose bringing a community together across borders, across
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: geographical boundaries and really extending those opportunities to students and families.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: So that's something that I'm really passionate about. I live
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: in a regional era. I live in cans myself.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Oh wow.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, And that's one of the great things
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: about Halleguy Panju if we can have stuff that are
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: not just based in Melbourne, they're also based in other
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: parts of Australia as well. So I've been with my
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: own eyes how challenging it can be in different regional
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: and remote areas of Australia to access a really brilliant education.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: So that was one piece of what we're trying to
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: develop with Halearbury Pangea.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm really fascinated by this tell me about
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the students who would want to be involved in an online,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: independent private school.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Well, that's what I've been One of the great things
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: that I've learned over time is we had our own
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: hypothesis about the kinds of students that would be attracted
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: to this environment and would thrive in this environment.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: Certainly that has borne out.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: We've seen the students who have significant commitments outside of school,
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: whether that's sport, whether that's helping on the famili's farm,
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: whether that's travel for performance and all kinds of things.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Certainly those students have found us and continue to find.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Us, which is really fantastic. We've seen a lot of
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: students come to our two.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: For various reasons, really prefer online learning, and I think
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: that's something that we did see during COVID as teachers.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: We saw that some.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Students actually do better in an online environment because they
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: have a bit of control over the physical space, they
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: don't have the distractions of a classroom, and they can
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: really work more at their own case. And that's been
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: particularly interesting to see with students who might have been
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: a little bit disengaged because they're not being adequately challenged
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: in school. Hailary Panger allows them to work faster, to
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: accelerate where they're ready to do so, and that's been
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: really great to see those students increasingly find us as well.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: And then look, we have students who might have all
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: kinds of circumstances that mean that they cannot get to
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: a traditional school environment, whether that's geographical, whether that's family,
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: it might be caring responsibilities in the home, it could
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: be social emotional needs, health needs often as well. And
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: again it's been such a privilege to be part of
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: their journey and be able to provide a solution where
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: really there haven't been a high quality educacial solution for
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: those students or not for previously. So yeah, so that's
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: a real privilege to acertise.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Families as well.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Joanna Baker joins me today. Joanna is the head of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: campus at Haileybury Pangaea, which is Victoria's first independent private
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: online school. Joe tell me about the online learning experience.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: It's going to be different to what we called schooling
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: at home during COVID a number of years ago. Now,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: obviously it's going to be markedly different from what we
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: did during COVID, but it's also going to be quite
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: different to and in person schooling experience. What are the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: kids doing and how does this work?
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: Great question, again, the one that we get most often.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: What actually happened was on a day to day, week
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: to week basis. Halabri, we took the lessons we learned
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: from our experiences during COVID course, but in fact Kilabury
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Tangier within the works in development prior to the pandemic.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: The pandemic experience of courts really accelerated.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: The development and the technology that allowed us to launch Pangier.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: We worked with international experts in online and blend what
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: we call blended learning, and we've developed our own blended model,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: which what that really means is that it's a mix
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: a blend of live instruction time with teachers in small
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: online classes typically about six to ten students in a class,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: and then they'll have a mix of that and what
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: we call self pace learning or self paced work, and
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: that's delivered throughout online courses that students are working through
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: throughout the week as well. And then in addition to that,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: there's lots of flexible support students can knopt into during
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: the week. It all runs online academic coaches that kind
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: of scene, and we also have of course co curricular programs.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: We have a community pastoral program as well.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we do try and really really make sure
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: that we are giving students the opportunity to develop their
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: strengths much just in the academic space, that develop their
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: interests and their passions as well, and so do the kids.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: The students, I presume that they get to know each other,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: like they create relationships that extend beyond the classroom. Based
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: on the way you're describing this, online school often feels
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: like I'm here, I'm doing my thing, and then I
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: go out and just forget all about school. But this
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: sounds like there's a level of integration that might be
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: unexpectedly high.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and that's probably one of the biggest misconceptions and
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: people are initially looking at uscause Yes, traditionally a lot
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: of the online school offerings in Australia and indeed around
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: the world have been fairly independent as as in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: students are really set off on their own to work
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: through online coursework or actually in the old days as
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: they were and they didn't get much of that interaction
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: with the teacher or it was very minimal. Where we've
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: really built that into our model. We think it's really
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: important that students have that interaction with an expert teacher,
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: but also that interaction with that he is in an
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: academic environment as well, and we've really seen how that
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: it does really connect to students. We've built a real
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: learning community in Hailarbary Tangier, which has been so rewarding
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: to see and the students, you know, they make friends
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: with each other quite organically, so often, you know, you'll
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: jump into a class and oh, there's two students at
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: each other's house and they're joining together online.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: So it's been really lovely to see that.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: We do also have opportunities for our family to meet
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: up in person, comes on campus events and activities, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: connect with the wider Halabrie community as well. So you know,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: while we are a lovely small, small campus at the moment,
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: we are part of that wider Halabury network, which is
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: a great advantage for our students and family.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So this is this is a very i don't know,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: advertorial kind of question to ask, but compare what you're
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: doing with online learning and distance education generally, because these
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: options do exist in the public system. What is it
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that you're doing that differentiates that adds value that makes
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: it a I mean, I'm really intrigued by this. We've
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: explored a whole lot of alternative schooling options throughout our
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: six children's school experiences. So how does this differ to
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: me signing my child up to the Queensland government or
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: the Victorian government's online education portal and just schooling them
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: at home in that fashion.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Great, it's a great question.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: And again it comes down to what we set out
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: to achieve. We wanted to deliver a brilliant education, a
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: halar bre education in.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: A different way.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: So when suits come into halar Bri Pangaea, it is
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: to halar Breed curriculum.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: It is brilliant teaching that we're known for.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: An indeed, the majority of our teachers teach both online
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: and on campus as well. They're working with the heads
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: of department that oversee all our campuses, that oversee the
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: curriculum and the.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: Teaching and learning development across the school.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: They're supported by our careers team and our well being teams.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: That work across all of our campuses. So we get that.
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: I suppose that that shared expertise that we're bringing two
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: students in this environment which is that I think a
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: huge advantage of our model.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: And I think again that that interaction, that personalized approach
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: that we take in our models, ensuring that every student
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: is challenged academically, that we're tracking really closely how they're
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: progressing in their learning, and that teachers can adjust their
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: instruction to their class. We've got those lovely small class sizes,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: so each student is getting that very personalized approach, and
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: I think that's something that our students certainly talk about
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: being what they what they enjoy most, it is the
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: quality of the teaching and the colony. Is that interaction
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: they get.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So at the start of the conversation, Joe, you mentioned
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: that you're in Victoria in the Northern Territory. Everyone who's
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in New South Wales, Queensland, South Astralia's has Ewa or
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: overseas is potentially listening to this and going, well, this
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: sounds really good. How do I get involved? And so
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: why is it the Raelian those two those two spaces
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: at the moment.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, this has been a really interesting piece of
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: developing Hailarbury Panda because we do believe very strongly in
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: extending in advancing education in Australia, extending these choices as
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: widely as we can to students and families. Unfortunately, the
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: way education is regulated in Australia it is state by state,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: and what we have learned in working with different states
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: is that the regulations are really often not equipped to
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: deal with this type of learning option. So we are
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: certainly hoping to extend to other states and territories in
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: the future. But yeah, heylibriy already having a presence in
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Melbourne and Window and at our Hailbury Rendels School and
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: boarding school up there has allowed us to make those
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: the first two states that we open to. We also
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: do have many students who might be ordinarily residing or
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: have a residential address in Victoria in Northern Territory, but traveling.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: We have lots of families who might have moved overseas
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: temporarily but planning to move back, and those students can
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: study with us as well.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Great, okay, so let's let's wrap this up. Core message
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: to families who are considering online learning as an option
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: because of any number of reasons that we've already discussed,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: What would you want parents to know about the online
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: space and its viability in terms of education.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think we always come back to the
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: idea that it's school shouldn't be a one size fits
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: all model, and we kilab Panjia, we're providing a different
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: way of learning. It's not going to be right for
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: every student at each point in their development.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: But what we found is that through that.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: Really careful of working with each family and each student,
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: we've been able to create parkways and create opportunities for
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: students that either may be struggling with traditional schooling or
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: it's not right for their circumstances at different points in time,
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: or indeed are looking for that academic challenge, a bit
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: more independent, it's a bit more flexibility, and yeah, a
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: bit more stretched in their learning as well. So and
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: again it is all. It all really comes back to
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: that community connection as well, being part of the Halabre community,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: being part of the Pangier community, and having that balance of.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: The academics of course with the center of our programs, but.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Also the wider social interaction and connection students get with
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: us as well.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I think that's such frue. That's probably
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: sums it up really, Joe.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I'm so fascinated by this obviously because of the state
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: education departments and all the bureaucracy and red tape that
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I outlined. It may be more relevant for people in
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Victoria in the NT than other places, but I reckon
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: it's going to give a whole lot of people a
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: whole lot of food for thought. It's certainly got me thinking,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and I really appreciate the conversation. Thanks for all you
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: do for education for families who would otherwise struggle. I
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: think this is really valuable.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Justin. It's been a pleasure to
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: speak with you today.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Joe Baker is the head of campus at Haileybury Pangaea,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: which is Victoria's first independent private online school. We'll link
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to some details about Haileybury Pangaea in the show notes
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: so that you can read more and investigate. I think
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: that's really interesting if you're looking at those alternative options
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: for schooling. The Happy Family podcast is produced by Justin
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Rouland from Bridge Media. Mim Hammonds provides our admin and
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: additional support. If you'd like more info to make your
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: family happier, you'll find all the details that you need
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: at Happy families dot com dot au.