Port Macquarie Adventist School to incorporate secondary education in 2021

The oldest independent school in the Hastings will draw from leading educational researchers and future focused schools from around the world as part of its philosophy, including the Future Schools Alliance.

For principal Joyanne Walsh, the move to secondary education is especially relevant - and exciting.

Her grandparents were among the community drivers to establish the school while her grandmother, mother and uncle all taught at the school. Mrs Walsh was also a teacher at the school in the early 1990s.

The principal says the school community is excited with the move to secondary.

"Even when the school was first established on the corner of Savoy and Seaview Avenue in 1952 they were talking about the need for secondary education," Mrs Walsh said.

"The desire has always been there; we've just taken the choice to make it happen.

"Helping our decision was the support of parents of the current year 6 cohort. They have been fabulous."

The extensive process included exploring ideas and researching educational success stories while also completing financial and business plans.

Mrs Walsh described the year 7 learning space as "intimate and boutique-style education".

This includes excluding words like "student" and "teacher" and replacing them with "young people" and " mentors" or "guides" .

Young people will take more control over the education process and explore learning in partnership with their parents and mentors.

"We want our young people to be in charge of their learning," she added.

Another advantage of progressing to secondary level education is being able to continue to expand on the project based learning (PBL) philosophy the school has embraced.

Mrs Walsh says combining PBL with real world learning through partnering with the wider community and a flexible learning model, means the outcomes are significant.

And getting the right mentors will be another key in the successful continuation of PBL learning.

"Mentors will be high quality, highly motivated, forward and future thinking," she said.

"They will co-create the curriculum with the young people while maintaining the standards to meet NESA (NSW Education Standards Authority) requirements.

"This is the blueprint for education at secondary level.

"As a small school we have a great opportunity to change; to give our young people some flexibility in their learning."

Mrs Walsh said this style of learning is empowering for young people. As part of the journey to offering secondary education, Mrs Walsh says other conversations about the school had been discussed.

These included understanding what makes a school a good place to learn.

"We encourage a sense of belonging in our young people, and understanding they have a voice here along with building really important partnerships," she said.

"This school will continue to evolve along with the school community needs.

"But at our core is that we are a Christian school and build on Christian values and principles. These are important to us.

"We believe this is what our young people will build on to form their own belief structures. This is absolutely paramount to us.

"If you belong and have a sense of belonging, your learning is richer. Our school celebrates our uniqueness," she said.

The school currently caters for 88 young people and a pre-kindergarten area.

Just 15 per cent of the school population is aligned to the Adventist faith.

Maya Thompson and Eily Weiss are two of the 15 young people in year 6 and they are excited about the prospect of continuing their learning at the school.

"We are treated like individuals at the school and I am looking forward to continuing my learning here," Maya said.

"I get to stay here and continue my journey."

Eily admitted she was "a bit nervous" about moving to another school (in year 7).

"Our school is small and that is really nice because it helps build your self esteem," she said.

"It is really exciting to know we will stay here and move into secondary. It's really awesome and I'm really excited to be coming back here next year."

The duo said learning independently during COVID-19 had been beneficial in helping them understand they can approach their teacher (mentor).

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