The Leadership Academy of A Company has been up and running for three years with the support of the ASB Trust.
And now with Government support it’s about to become a fully-fledged school known as a charter or partnership school.
The director of curriculum for the Whangaruru Partnership School, Natasha Sadlier, has a positive perspective on last week’s announcement despite already receiving condemnation from unions with the Post-Primary Teachers Association saying it would consider boycotting the schools.
Unfortunately the negative statistics don’t end there. Statistics from 2007 showed that 81% of Māori boys at high school in Whangarei failed NCEA level one.
This became the driving force for the establishment of the Leadership Academy of A Company in 2009.
Created as a tribute to the 28th Māori Battalion, the academy carries the name of the men from the North and has the intention of moving in a different direction to provide Māori leadership for the future.
With only five months to the start date of the new schools, the respective directors agree that partnerships schools are not the answer to all the woes of the sector but are yet another vehicle that will provide some much needed answers in education.
The forecast is for more and more schools be they mainstream Māori or special character taking interest in the partnership model.