Martinborough School‘s Newest Classroom Opens for Learning

On a beautiful late summer morning, students, teachers and parents gathered to take part in the blessing and opening of Martinborough School’s latest classroom. This is the mirror-image second half of a classroom block that was built in 2014. Wiremu Waata-Dawson, who has four grandchildren at the school, gave the blessing. He then invited everyone present to walk through the rooms, as he expressed it, “making the spaces safe and putting a human mark on the building”.

Principal Craig Nelson explained that the handsome building with its bright green and blue fronts, big windows, and doors opening to the north, is an “innovative learning environment, or ILE”. According to the Ministry of Education, an innovative environment is “one that is capable of evolving and adapting as educational practices evolve and change – thus remaining future focused”.

The four classrooms are interconnected and allow for flexible learning. They contain a range of different spaces, tables and chairs of varying heights and shapes, and doors that can enclose an area or open it all up completely. It is a team teaching environment and the senior classes who use these rooms experience learning that is, in Craig’s words, “very far from the days of sitting in rows at separate desks”. Each student has their own computer, much of the day’s activities occur in collaborative groups, and the focus is on tailoring learning to the individual.

Craig says that “there has been lots of work behind the scenes to get everyone on board”, but that it is “an exciting opportunity for learning”, which is of course what we all want for the children in our community.