Will Haeata help the kids of the east?

12.06.2017

Is this an exciting new era in education, or a social experiment?

Open plan classrooms for 300 children, self-directed learning, and Bob Marley in lieu of the school bell. On the site of the old Aranui High, stands Haeata - heralding the dawn of a new era in education, but not without teething problems.

As Haeata neared the end of its very first term, Christchurch Dilemmas met passionate teachers and engaged pupils, but also older children struggling to adapt, and parents questioning the benefits to their children of an education system vastly different to the school days they remember.

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