Associate H.S. Concept

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 10

Associate H.S. Concept

The concept of associate high schools as an in* tegral part of secondaryteacher training facilities would allow New Zealand to break away from the traditional form of secondary school, said the principal of the secondary division of the Christchurch Teachers’ College (Mr E. P. Blampied).

He was commenting on the problem of relating the work of the teachers’ college more closely to classroom practice, a matter which had been brought before a meeting of the Christchurch Teachers’ College Council earlier this week.

“Too often New Zealand is afraid to experiment with new educational ideas. The associate school concept would give us the chance to establish something designed for this country’s needs and save us relying completely on borrowing forms from overseas,” Mr Blampied said. An associate school would need to be an entirely new type of high school with a markedly different kind of approach from the traditional, Mr Blampied said. Different Emphasis

“It would have to be different in order to attract pupils and could best cover the Form I to Form V range.

Under an imaginative principal, who would work in close association with but under the control of the college principal, it could develop a different emphasis based upon a different set of values from the commonly accepted ones of the secondary schools of today.” Aided by the unlimited staffing available from college teacher students, education for the pupils could become much more an individual and personal matter than the group class and team experience which is naturally associated with schools, Mr Blampied said. Established Schools Pointing out that one alternative to the concept of associate, schools lay in designating certain established schools as “normal" schools, Mr Blampied said that there appeared to be no reason why the special regulations, governing the “normal” primary and intermediate schools could not be extended to in-

clude secondary schools. “This could be done without any of the furore that would accompany a proposal to establish an associate school.”

To convert an existing secondary school to the status of a “normal” school could only take place after full and free negotiations involving the board of governors of the school, the principal and his staff, the teachers’ college and the Department of Education.

“The school must remain entirely independent of con- ; trol of the college and the two principals would maintain completely their present iindependence but would attempt to forge a suitable working partnership between . them,” Mr Blampied said. If the Department of Education were prepared to con- . sider favourably the exten- . sion of the normal school . idea into the secondary ser- . vice, it would be an . advantage to have more than one school so designated, he , said.