I've had a look at the new face of schooling

 

The traditional “chalk and talk” style of schooling is incredibly resilient.

 Teaching and learning in schools around the world have been carrying on in much the same way since early in the last century. The colonial empires that ruled most of the world, and imposed their schooling systems on the children in the countries that they had appropriated, are gone now, yet those educational practices remain.

 The English schooling system was transplanted into South Africa and its aim was to produce loyal subjects of the Crown and good colonial citizens of the Empire. Those intentions were well illustrated at the end of the South African (Anglo-Boer) War with the creation of the so-called Milner Schools. The British colonial authorities established a series of schools that were meant to Anglicise the children in the Transvaal and halt the influence of Afrikaans in the province.

 Those political sentiments changed – although schooling was still used for nefarious political ends by the Apartheid government – but the pedagogical methods that were used in their service are pretty much still with us.

 The idea that the teacher is the source of knowledge and teaching was about transferring that knowledge to the children was underpinned by the operational set up of schools and by their architectural design. 

 After 1948, political control passed into the hands of Afrikaners, and the church-led education that was provided to black children was replaced by State-controlled Apartheid education, but the method of teaching children remained the same.

 In the meantime, technological advances made it possible to change everything, but still nothing really changed.

 Maybe what was needed was an era-ending event (ERE), something so big and disruptive that nothing could ever be the same again, to finally free schooling from the shackles.

 As the Covid-19 pandemic surges on, with no signs of abating any time soon, there are those who are calling it an ERE. The closure of schools and the move to digital, online teaching that resulted, certainly forced educationalists to relook at the way they were doing things, and there was a lot of innovation, and a sudden awareness of what was possible with the technology that already exists.

 The students are back at school, for now, and it seems some sort of blended model, consisting of face-to-face contact and virtual classrooms will be the way that those schools who have the resources will go in the future.

There are online schools springing up – institutions that are entirely virtual – and they are certainly different. But are they the answer? What about socialisation and community interaction, what about simply hanging out with your friends?

Someone who has always been acutely aware of all these issues is Shaun Fuchs. He’s been a principal, a manager of a group of schools, and the chief executive of a private schools organisation. He’s been asking himself why this disruption can’t be used positively by re-imagining what a school looks like and re-arranging how it’s organised so that the age-old traditional model is destroyed, the new technology is used to best effect and the children are placed in the centre of it all.

He did more than ask about it; he put his reputation and livelihood on the line and built a school at which all that can happen. Last week he invited me to come and take a look at it.

It’s not completely finished – the first children arrive in January 2022 – but there’s enough already there to see that it’s going to be something very special.

Shaun has started a company called Centennial Schools – the one I went to in Sunninghill, Sandton, is the first in what he is confident will become a national chain – and he has converted an office park to become the physical site where it’s all going to happen, and appointed a principal and initial staff (it will open with Grade 7, 8 and 9 classes next year).

 The existing building has been gutted and its interior converted but, significantly, there have been no major structural alterations. “We have clear ideas about how the learning areas should operate,” he said, “but beyond that we have adapted to the available spaces. That will apply when we move into other premises around the country – no two schools will be the same.”

The architectural stereotypes of schools are a reflection of their pedagogical philosophy, Shaun believes. “The traditional classroom with its rows of desks and the teacher’s table up front reflects the power dynamics in those spaces, and the way in which students are supposed to learn. We will have learning hubs, not classrooms, there is no front or back, and there is a variety of chairs and tables which can be arranged in a way suited to the activities taking place at the time.”

The learning hubs belong to the students – they decide how they want to position themselves in them, and the teachers, who all have their own offices elsewhere, come to them. Each pair of hubs has a shared space called a collaboration hub in between them in which shared teaching and learning activities can take place.

“Our classroom design is student-centred and dynamic. Time and space are being completely reimagined and the student is at the core,” Shaun said.

There are also creative hubs designed for design and innovation, a chill zone, a cafeteria that looks like an upmarket coffee shop, a gym and a yoga studio.

The pedagogical philosophy is based on self-learning. “Our teachers are not lecturers, but rather facilitators who guide our students towards knowledge gathering, sense-making and application,” Shaun said. “Teenagers need the opportunity to exercise choice and experiment with independence in ways that ease them into the demands of early adulthood.”

That philosophy is underpinned by a state-of-the-art school management system called Engage. It manages all aspects of the school’s operation, including the presentation of the curriculum. The entire learning programme is posted online, using a blend of the best of various online learning systems, so the content is up there, and it remains there all year.

“The teachers aren’t responsible for transmitting facts and figures in class, but for ways of leading the students to discover, interpret and apply the facts for themselves,” Shaun said. “This allows for a seamless switching over to virtual teaching should the Covid-19 regulations demand it, and the students are also able to miss lessons for valid reasons without falling behind on the work.”

The ability to catch up on your own has made another unique feature possible – the opportunity to, occasionally, take a “time out”. “The stresses and pressures on teenagers can be overwhelming so we allow them to break away for a few minutes to get their balance. They have to let the teacher know, via a classmate, and they undertake to catch up on the work they have missed. Those sessions are recorded on the Engage system, so they can’t be abused, and if they happen too frequently the student is flagged and counselling assistance can be given.

A school inside an office complex doesn’t have space for sports fields, but that doesn’t mean Centennial isn’t aware of the value of extra-curricular activities. “Conditioning and exercise are taken care of in our fully equipped gym and outdoor exercise area, and we have the yoga studio. A qualified exercise scientist will run those programmes.

There will be encouragement and support for students who want to participate in traditional team and individual sports at local clubs and there are clubs catering for a wide range of those in close proximity to the school.

An extra-curricular area in which Centennial will be streets ahead of other schools is e-sports. The Sunninghill campus will have the biggest e-sports arena in the country where recreation and competitive activities will be presented, on state-of-the art equipment, under the guidance of a professional gamer.

Shaun Fuchs seemed a bit stressed at first when I met with him. Creating innovative and progressive educational places isn’t new for him – he’s been doing it for years at Crawford and Reddam House Schools – but this time it’s his own project. He explained that he has skin in the game. That means he is even more passionate and determined to make it work. He is even going to teach history next year to make sure it’s working properly from the teachers’ perspectives.

“We have appointed Nkuli Gamede as principal. He has a background in traditional boys’ schooling, but he buys into what we are trying to do completely and couldn’t be more excited about getting started,” Shaun said.

“The building is getting there, the teachers have been appointed and the classes are filling up. I can’t wait for January.”

Neither can I. Schooling needs a shake-up. Covid-19 and Shaun Fuchs have conspired that Centennial School in Sunninghill be the place where we can see what the future might look like. Maybe, in education, we are really experiencing an era-ending event.