case studies

Aorere College

South Auckland secondary school, Aorere College (1650 pupils) has been using RT3T for the past 10 years. Due to its significant impact, the school has committed to providing all Year 9 students with three hours of RT3T a week for four weeks, to learn and practice RT3T thinking, metacognitive, and teamwork skills.

Christ's College

Our mission is to create good young men. When I started here seven years ago, we had one to six setting, (year level classes ranked 1-6) and you can imagine the mentality that a group of boys have when they call themselves the cabbage class. We then changed to two top bands and four middle bands.

Christchurch Girls’ High School

In 2021 Christchurch Girls’ High School – Te Kura o Hine Waiora decided to de-stream learning in Year 9 & 10 and are already beginning to see the impact this has had on their students. The decision to de-stream took courageous leadership from across the school and rests on their school vision and values.

Fairfield College

In 2020, the Fairfield College Board of Trustees approved principal Richard Crawford’s recommendation that from 2021 Fairfield College would commence a process of de-streaming. The recommendation was based on the support that he received from Fairfield College’s deputy principals, faculty leaders, and deans. Richard says there were doubts to overcome because they were seeking to disrupt the embedded practice they previously believed enabled optimal learning and achievement outcomes for all students.

Hastings Girls’ High School

“It’s not the same space as it was, is probably the starting point. People focus on taking away the streaming, but we don’t even think about it. Streaming is like a big wall – that’s all you can see. If you take it away - it’s like a blank canvas. You create it. You have a palette of primary colours, but it takes skill to create an artwork.”

Horowhenua College

Horowhenua principal, Grant Congdon says that as long as he can remember the school has been strategically focused on improving Māori and Pasifika academic results. “This is a nationwide focus, yet our own results as well as national results show we are generally failing in this area.”

Inglewood High School

Inglewood High School Principal, Rosey Mabin says the key reason for moving away from streaming was the lack of motivation in their Year 10’s. They were just cruising along, and we were getting no shift in academic performance. We learned of the idea of modules and staff liked the idea.

Napier Girls’ High School

But this year, for the first time, they’ve been treated as equals by their peers and have been determined to succeed and have made amazing strides. In algebra, they are forecast to get level 4 or 5. They still have difficulty with numeracy, but their teacher says that, having previously been on the fence about de-streaming, this case has completely changed his mind.

Onslow College

Onslow College principal, Sheena Millar says it was the joy of not thinking about the level a student would or should achieve before they’ve even walked through the door. Once you start heading down that road of being student centred in the classroom, it’s really hard to argue that streaming benefits students- it benefits teachers.

Riccarton High School

Over the past 15 years Carmen Kenton has transitioned her practice from traditional approaches to dynamic, inclusive, strengths-based pedagogies where students are partners in their learning. Carmen’s current Year 11 science class is highly diverse in language, culture, and learning needs. To support all students in the class to contribute, learn, and thrive, Carmen emphasises flexible grouping based on individual strengths.

Sacred Heart College

Meet Gabriela Isolabella, HOD Mathematics at Sacred Heart College Napier. Gabriela is passionate about teaching mathematics. She believes that for secondary schools, the area to focus on is Y9 and 10 and placing the most experienced teachers with these classes so the students have a strong foundation going into the senior school.

Spotswood College

For Spotswood Principal Nicola Ngarewa, streaming went against the schools strengths-based approach to teaching and learning, reinforcing a system of haves and have nots, and ultimately perpetuating systemic racism. Their approach to learning is purposeful, personalised, and aligned with the opportunities of today’s world.