Hobsonville Point Primary School

The onboarding experience for Year 1 students at this school leaves much to be desired, creating a poor foundation for their future education. The transition from a nurturing kindergarten environment to a playground shared with up to 900 children, ranging from ages 5 to 13, is overwhelming. There is only one playground with no allocated area specifically for junior children, causing distress and potential safety concerns for the youngest students.

Additionally, a Year 1 class shares toilet facilities with Year 7 students. This arrangement is inappropriate, considering the significant developmental and behavioural differences between these age groups. It would be more suitable for facilities to be shared with similarly aged students to promote comfort and ease for the younger children.

Communication from senior leadership is notably poor and condescending. Parents and guardians often feel dismissed and uninformed about important school matters, leading to frustration and a lack of trust in the administration. This communication gap undermines the overall school experience and community spirit.

Despite these challenges, several teachers stand out as warm and wonderful, the true diamonds of the school. Their dedication and kindness provide a glimmer of hope within an otherwise experimental and poorly managed operation. These educators work tirelessly to support the students, but their efforts are often hampered by the broader systemic issues at play.

Uniform isn’t enforced. Safe environment. Regular activities. Friendly teachers who can win kids’ love and respect.

However, the main component is missing - education.

The school is running an experimental programme that’s based on learning in context. In reality, after two years in this school, I cannot tell the difference between what my kid was studying two years ago and now.

Despite being assessed positively by teachers, it’s obvious he’s behind in math, which we have to compensate with extra curricular classes. He lacks both understanding of basic fundamentals and ability to apply math skills in tasks that are too different from what they were taught. The latter is ironic because that was supposed to be one of the advantages of this method of education.

They can play Disney cartoons to kids for the whole day, or take them for fishing or other kinds of exciting activities. That’s awesome, but when do they actually study? Even my son told me he’s not learning a lot…

Our friends moved to a different suburb for a more traditional school. Many other families we know are unhappy with the education, same as us.

In our intro meeting with the principal, he talked us through the benefits of the method and mentioned that “not everybody understands it”. I can see why - there’s simply nothing to understand.

It’s very convenient tho - it’s not the method that’s flawed, it’s parents not understanding. Where’s any evidence that it works? The only evidence I see is NZ’s tragic underperformance in tests compared to other countries. For that I certainly blame “experiments” like this.