Six high schools in Hobart’s eastern suburbs and on the east coast have banded together to explore offering Year 11 and 12 to their students.
Key points:
- Education Minister announces 18 more Tasmanian schools will extend to senior secondary from 2017
- Six of those schools in the south-east will come together as an alliance
- By 2018, 30 schools will be offering senior secondary education
Until last year, Tasmania’s public schools only offered a full curriculum up to Year 10, when students could then transfer to one of eight colleges around the state to complete Years 11 and 12.
Tasmania has Australia’s highest school dropout rate and the Government offered schools funding to extend to senior secondary in an attempt to improve retention levels.
Twelve public schools now offer Years 11 and 12 onsite.
Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff has announced another 18 schools will extend to senior levels from 2017, but not all principals expect to be ready to deliver classes next year.
Six schools in the south east including Clarence, Sorell, Rose Bay, Rokeby, Triabunna and Campania, have formed an alliance rather than each school offering their own complete Year 11 and 12 curriculum.
Clarence High School principal Marcelle Watts said they would use government funding to finalise the model but did not expect to be ready for classes until 2018.
“Some of the programs might be offered at individual sites,” she said.
“There might be a program at Sorell School for any students going to Year 11 and 12, so that might be animal studies for example which is one that we know is a very successful program, and that would be best offered there,” Ms Watts said.
Every school and its community is different to the next, and there is no ‘one size, fits all’ solution.
Jeremy Rockliff
More than 90 per cent of Clarence students go onto Rosny College.
“As a group of schools, some of our students within the local area did not always continue and we wanted to see what we could do as a group of schools to increase their participation in education beyond Year 10,” Ms Watts said.
The group is called the Tagana Alliance.
“Tagana means heart because we think it’s the heart … of where we want our students to be going to continue their learning,” Ms Watts said.
The Education Minister said the extra schools which signed up to extend to Year 11 and 12 took the number of schools involved to 30, exceeding the Government’s original commitment to support 21 regional high schools to Year 12 by 2018.
“We have listened and acted, while also considering the fact that every school and its community is different to the next, and there is no ‘one size, fits all’ solution,” he said.
“Over coming months the Department of Education will work with the school communities to design delivery models that best suit the individual needs of their school and students.”
[Source:- abcnetau]
