Green School New Zealand is a school responding to the real challenges of our age. Its Head of School, Caroline Rennie, is at the forefront, leading the charge with courage, innovation, and purpose.
With a passion for regeneration, the environment, local culture and innovative education, Caroline Rennie is the perfect person to guide Green School New Zealand’s young learners and wider community in the coming years.
Having arrived at the independent, international school based in Ōākura, Taranaki, in April this year, Caroline has recently completed her first term as Head of School. Although it has been a whirlwind since she arrived from her Deputy Head role at ACS International School in Doha, she couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.
“I really do feel this is my journey. To be able to come to work every day and live and breathe a mission and vision in which I truly believe, brings me absolute gratitude.”
That mission is to “create a community of learners making our world sustainable” and follows the same mission embedded in the inaugural Green School, developed in Bali by John and Cynthia Hardy over a decade ago.
It’s a mission that seeks achievement by offering a unique educational experience based on real-world learning, which honours the independence, wellbeing, individual skills and passions of all learners.
“A Green School education really is a distinct, future-focused learning experience that responds to the real challenges of our age,” says Caroline.
“The learning programme holds onto and cherishes the best of traditional curriculum and methodology, but also acknowledges that the future requires change, and this curriculum is responding to that call with courage, imagination and innovation.”
At the centre of the learning is a desire for its Year 1-13 learners to “thrive with purpose”, and Green School New Zealand’s innovative, sustainable and architecturally inspiring campus is designed to help encourage that, alongside its bespoke curriculum and focus on individuality.
“We know the most effective learning happens when we can find balance. Where we can create an environment where learners feel safe, valued, are kind, listen to each other, take responsibility, and are able to learn content and skills and have the opportunity to apply these in authentic situations,” she says.
While Green School New Zealand is fully registered by the Ministry of Education and accredited by the Education Review Office, it is also a member of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, an internationally-recognised organisation which embraces digital high school transcripts to showcase learners’ well-rounded achievements, values and skills, as opposed to exams or testing.
Caroline says this way of assessing students’ achievements is becoming incredibly popular and widely accepted around the world, as educators challenge the status quo and push education beyond the traditional classroom landscape.
“There are wonderful examples of innovative practices, learner engagement, student voice and agency and designing authentic learning experiences in schools, especially in primary and lower secondary schools. However, this for the most part, then reverts back to more traditional models in the last three or four years of secondary school.
“In most education systems in the world, students are funneled back to an external exam or standardised testing situation proctored under strict conditions. The purpose of which is to decide if the student can enter tertiary education, a trade or the workforce, or to be ranked against each other for entry into highly selective pathways.
“If you think about the innovations in other sectors, such as telecommunications, the changes are unrecognisable. A person from the 1980s would not recognise a telephone from the 2020s. We all recognise schools. They have not changed that much. So it is my strong belief that education is on the brink of such innovation. Our young people deserve a different experience, one in which they leave school with a portfolio that represents what they know, can do and understand, and what illustrates who they are, their values and beliefs, hopes and dreams.”
Having launched its Green School Diploma at the beginning of 2021, Green School New Zealand currently has 12 students in its first Year 11 class, who are working towards developing the digital transcripts they will use to proceed to higher education, or enter the workforce.
Head of Diploma, Sophie BradleyGSNZ Head of Diploma, Sophie Bradley, says the diploma is all about exploring curiosities, following passions, and developing life-long skills.
“We’re trying to move away from the traditional testing of knowledge, and move much more towards knowledge creation, knowledge application, skills creation and skills application. Our diploma learning integrates Earth’s natural systems and environments, ethical economic growth and the wellbeing of ourselves and others.
“The programme is designed to give young people a love of learning and a vast range of real-world skills that they can take forward for the rest of their lives.”
With Green School New Zealand being one school in a current network of four (alongside Bali, South Africa and Mexico), Caroline is a firm believer that the Green School way of learning is a powerful strategy to help communities locally, nationally, and globally.
“I hope that this love of nature, connection to the land and desire to be relentless about making a difference in our world will positively impact the Taranaki community, Aotearoa, and the world. In collaboration with peers, the community, businesses and enterprises, our learners are becoming authentic changemakers. It is our belief that they will be scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators who contribute to making a sustainable, regenerative, healthy lifestyle accessible to all.”
www.greenschool.nz
@greenschoolnz
thrivewithpurpose@greenschool.nz
