Hanmer Springs Primary School
Hanmer Springs is a small, isolated, decile 5 school located in one of New Zealand's key alpine resorts with a roll of 84 students from year 1–8. In recent years the school has experienced a shifting population resulting from the closure of the Queen Mary Hospital. Property prices are going up and short term rentals are increasingly common. As a result, the school has found that 43 percent of students move to or from the school in any year. The majority of students are Pākehā, with increasing numbers of immigrant children, particularly from England and Germany.
Motivation
The principal, Brian Price, says that Hanmer Springs School is a "family-type school with close relationships between the school and community. We have a village of parents and children from different backgrounds and different places. So our school is all about being open and receptive to people."
Although the school is located in a beautiful setting, the distance from Hanmer Springs to other towns, cities and education facilities has a big influence on the school culture. "When people enquire about enrolling their children here, they worry about the kids missing out," explains Brian. "So we have a strong focus on the use of ICT and on student participation at events across the region so that we can be sure our students have all the opportunities available elsewhere in New Zealand. We also benchmark our students' achievement against national norms to show that they are keeping pace with their peers around the country."
Students from Hanmer Springs School move on to the local secondary school, Culverden Area School, or to boarding schools in Nelson, Waimate, Christchurch, and Timaru. Brian believes that knowledge of another language is essential at these schools. "Our year 7 and 8 students learn Japanese, French, German and Spanish so that they know what it's all about. It makes year 7 and 8 a little special, and it helps them to make informed decisions about language learning when they move on to secondary school," he explains.
Brian came to Hanmer Springs from St Joseph's School in Rangiora, where a languages programme had been established during his time there. Although Brian learned French at school, he was "absolutely scared" about teaching the language, a fear that Language Advisor, Jo Guthrie, was able to turn around. "I found that I could teach languages and that I could teach French," states Brian, "and it's been great fun!"
Funding pool application
Just after Brian arrived at Hanmer Springs, a new family asked "Do you teach French?" He said, "Not right now, but we are thinking of it," and rang Jo Guthrie for advice. On her way through to Nelson, Jo called into the school with the news that the International Language Series was about to be made available to schools free of charge. [Note that International Language Series (ILS) has been renamed Learning Languages Series.]
Brian talked with staff and carried out a survey about language learning. He found that one staff member had learned French while at school and was excited about the prospect of becoming a language teacher. Together they applied to the Second Language Learning Funding Pool for help with the cost of professional development, equipment, and resources. Their application was successful. [Note that the Second Language Learning Funding Pool is now known as the Learning Languages Funding Pool.]
"So," remembers Brian, "we had the International Language Series, we had some funding, and we had a board of trustees who thought it was a great idea and at least one staff member who was excited about the possibilities. We had initially thought that the programme would be offered as an extension, but decided it should be open to everyone!"
Professional development
The school had won funding for professional development and the purchase of resources that would support their programme. Brian enrolled himself and staff in courses as they became available.
"The big problems for Hanmer Springs are the travel costs and time – but teacher release costs were met by funding from the pool," comments Brian. "Finding resources was easy due to the great information and newsletters from Association of Colleges of Education in New Zealand (ACENZ). We set up areas in the library to support languages and used some of the funding to purchase great materials."
Programme development
"The key challenge we faced was concern from parents," Brian recalls. "They were worried that their children had yet another subject area and, if they struggled with English, how would they cope with another language? These fears were addressed through research results which we shared about how learning another language benefits students' knowledge of their mother tongue. I offered the languages programme as optional, but once the parent information evening was run, the programme introduced, and its value seen, everyone wanted their children to be involved, even the parents of younger children."
Once the programme began in classrooms, a language teacher living in the community came forward and offered to introduce Japanese. A short time later, Brian was approached by a teacher and counselor from the local hospital. He had specialised in teaching German and offered to support the school's languages programme by teaching alongside the teacher and running extension classes for some students. "The support has been incredible," says Brian. "You just never know who is out there in the community."
The language programme is now structured around a two-year cycle in which students learn four languages, each for approximately six months. "There is no one teacher who takes languages in our school," comments Brian. "They all see themselves as successful language teachers."
Reporting to parents
The school has included the languages programme in their assessment and reporting to parents. The tasks include:
- learning conferences between the student, teacher and parents
- student surveys about school and about language learning
- a portfolio of student work
- presentations in the language they are learning.
Results
"We find that we get high engagement and enthusiasm from students who struggle to learn in other curriculum areas," reports Brian. "One part of the learning conference sheet we use asks students to complete the sentence 'My favourite subject is ...' and just over half the students put down either French or German, the languages we offer. In another area of the sheet, children identified languages as the subject 'I want to improve'."
Future plans
The school's new plan is to develop another cluster, similar to the year 7/8 cluster. The schools in the Hurunui district range from small two-teacher schools to area schools. Hanmer Springs is planning to cluster schools that have year 7 and 8 classes. They plan to gather together for language days, and incorporate languages into the district's Oral Language Festival, sharing food and culture as the students socialise.
"We want to build on the professional development, to make sure that we have staff who maintain their passion for language learning," explains Brian. "We'll keep tapping into the community, and building our networks. We're beginning to coordinate activities across the district with other local schools, activities that go beyond second language learning. We have started the Hurunui Language Festival that will kick off this year. We've invited other schools to participate so that their students can be involved in a range of oral language activities. After our trial this year, we will look to widen the number of languages at the Festival."
Advice to other schools
Brian believes that the key to the success of languages at Hanmer Springs has been the International Language Series, support materials, and professional development. "I've seen the same pattern for each language," explains Brian. "The first time the teachers just use the International Language Series, the second time they pick the eyes out of it and introduce other aspects such as food, art, and customs."
"I think that other schools need to know that it's easier than you think. It's a different way of learning languages, and different from what people might remember of secondary school French, for instance. Students make links between English and the language they're learning. The programme in our school has been well supported by the community. People who were scared to come into the school will come to talk with us now, like students' grandparents or people in the community who have travelled. It's a good start for the students."