The Correspondence School Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu is the country’s largest school and also has the highest number of Māori students.
Its new chief executive, Te Rina Leonard (Tauranga Moana, Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa), is its first Māori female chief executive and says the school could be a powerful catalyst for change in the education system.
Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu has more than 30,000 students and has undergone major change.
“What has been challenging was changing the school from paper and book submissions to totally online submissions,” her predecessor, Mike Hollings (Ngāti Raukawa, Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi) says,
Hollings is leaving the school after 17 years at its helm, leading the changes.
Te Reo Māori teacher Rihari Madams (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Kai Tahu) says it was Hollings’ idea to introduce digital technology to help the students in their education “and Mike has always put the success of our students at the forefront”.
Leader for change
Leonard says the school could be a leader for change in the education system.
“We are not like any other school in Aotearoa. We do things quite differently and that gives people a chance to experience education in a different way,” she says.
Leonard is also looking at how she can meet the needs of vulnerable students.
“I think we’ve served the education system really well in terms of providing a place for ākonga to come to get a learning programme that is really personalised to them and what they want to receive, and that’s what many of our young people are asking for with a lot more relevancy.”
“In the future, I hope to see that if students want to attend a classroom, they can,” says Hollings.
The school, which has had a 40 percent increase in fulltime enrolments since 2018, also hopes the Ministry of Education will review its funding as a matter of priority.
Leonard first qualified as an educational psychologist, before leading large operational, evaluation and policy teams in education.
She has also worked in education policy and evaluation at the Education Review Office.
