Geelong’s two largest and most established Catholic schools will trial an experimental timetable that puts senior students in charge of their own learning, including periods of remote study, as well as shorter lunch breaks and a bigger emphasis on wellbeing, The Age reports.
Sacred Heart and St Joseph’s colleges say the changes will push students to be more independent and better prepare them for life beyond the cocooned environment of school.
But some parents have pushed back fiercely against the plans, accusing the schools of treating their children like “guinea pigs” and potentially even setting them up for academic failure after three years of COVID-related learning disruption.
Sacred Heart College principal Anna Negro said the timetable for 2024 would enable students “to move from an industrial age school with time-based organisational practices that have long since outlived their historic function, to vibrant learning communities that better reflect and prepare the students for life beyond school, whether that be work and/or further study”.
Under the new timetable, students in years 11 and 12 will be set “independent work” for one day a week, with teachers on hand to help where needed. Students in years 7 to 10 will remain in face-to-face classes full-time but will also be set tasks that enable them to work independently.
Anxiety among parents spilt over at a public information session on May 27, during which several people urged the two schools to backpedal on their plan.
“Can we test the depth of the research? Because it feels like our students are being made the guinea pigs for a trial of education delivery,” one mother, known only as Donna, asked the panel of school leaders.
The schools told parents the changes are four years in the making, have been employed at other forward-looking schools, and are driven by the need to prepare students for a world of work that is rapidly changing.
FULL STORY
Short lunch breaks, remote study: Catholic schools unveil radical timetable experiment (The Age)
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