Low decile Northland schools seeing success through digital immersion
A cluster of low decile Northland schools is on track to outperform many of its higher decile counterparts across the
country through digital learning.
Students in the Te Puawai cluster - which includes Manaia View School, Whau Valley Primary, Te Kura o Otangarei,
Whangarei Intermediate, Tikipunga High School and Hikurangi Primary School - are making faster progress in learning than
the average New Zealand school, according to a report by the University of Auckland’s Woolf Fisher Research Centre.
The report tracked 394 students between Years 4 and 10 who participated in Taitokerau Education Trust’s Digital
Immersion Programme throughout 2017.
Taitokerau Education Trust aims to raise achievement levels by making personal-use devices accessible to students from
lower-income households.
Students on the programme have equal access to online learning from their qualified teachers while studying both at
school and in their homes.
Dr Rebecca Jesson, who led the research, says some of the students made accelerated gains at more than three times the
rate of the previous year.
“All lines are pointing upwardly for all year levels for both genders and all ethnicities, which is huge,” says Dr.
Jesson.
She says the cluster is particularly strong in writing, a subject which often faces underperformance, and made faster
than normal progress in maths.
The programme’s Digital Immersion Facilitator, Beth Lamb, says a key element to the programme is the flipped learning
model, which is being embedded in all digital classrooms.
Flipped learning allows teachers to make lessons available to students before and during class so classroom time can be
used to engage in active and meaningful learning activities.
“The flipped learning model enables the learners to access the content as many times as they need to gain a complete
understanding.
“This is at the forefront of digital immersion best practice and is having a significant impact on student engagement in
learning,” Lamb says.
Dr. Jesson says the collaborative, flipped learning environment has played a key role in the accelerated achievement of
the cluster.
“Teachers can easily engage kids in discussion because rest of class is participating in meaningful online activities
where they can share their learning. And the students are working together with high expectations for each other. We can
see this coming through.”
Taitokerau Education Trust Executive Officer Liz Cassidy-Nelson says the impressive results are due to more than digital
immersion alone.
“It’s a wonderful acknowledgement of the commitment our teachers, who have upskilled to a new way of teaching, and
whānau, who are investing in the resources to make the change.”
Read more about one family’s experience on the Digital Immersion Programme or visit http://taitokerau.education/ to learn more about the trust.