The school which is redefining Aussie education as we know it

The people who made this school, and who are still running the facility to this day, say their model can be used as a template for schools across the country. Take a peek inside.

Imagine if Australia’s best educators were given the chance to design the perfect school.

And then imagine if they built that school with the same funding and under the same rules as all other public schools.

And then imagine if that school was so extraordinary that one of the world’s top education experts decided to send his own kids there.

Well, you don’t have to. It’s already happened.

Albert Park College in Melbourne is indeed extraordinary but it shouldn’t be. The people who made it, and who are still running it to this day, say that their model can be used as a template for schools across the country.

Albert Park College Principal Steve Cook talking to students.

It combines an almost touchy-feely commitment to values and inclusion with a laser-like focus on student performance and academic excellence.

And somewhere within that soft-hard double-helix it produces magic.

Albert Park College could be the blueprint for Australia’s educational overhaul.

First, there are no fences. Students are able to move around between its five campuses as they need to.

Second, there are no bells. Students are expected to get to where they need to be on time the same way everyone else does.

Third, there are no photocopiers. Well, maybe a couple. But it doesn’t waste money on old or unnecessary technology.

Fourth, there is no Android. Students all have Apple devices and those who can’t afford them are assisted by the school.

Albert Park College students are free to move around all five of the school’s campuses.

This ensures everybody’s work is easily compatible and teachers don’t waste precious classroom time on technical problems.

Fifth, there are a lot of open fireplaces. I’m not entirely sure what the exact purpose of this is but it’s a nice touch.

Sixth, teachers can bring their dogs to school, which I think is a bit like the fireplaces. It’s about making school less sanitised and remote from the real world and more like… Well, the real world.

Seventh, they get their students out in the real world. There are endless arrangements with the local council and outside organisations that give kids hands on experience.

Eighth, they hustle. Any chance to approach a local business to chip in for a new facility or initiative they take. So somehow they got a nearby shipping company to pay for a mini-aquarium.

Students playing chess at Albert Park College.

Ninth, they have pride. Kids wear a full school uniform with blazers and ties that are the equal of any of the prestigious private schools that surround them.

Tenth, they have respect. Students are expected to call their teachers Mr or Miss and there is zero tolerance for students not being respectful and kind to each other.

And that’s just the start. Or rather it’s the foundation for the academic excellence that follows but here again it operates outside the box.

Critical to the school’s high performance is, ironically enough, low performance. Each class is effectively taught at five levels. Students work at their level rather than an arbitrary one-size-fits-all standard.

Albert Park College students watching a video presentation... The school has a number of programs in place to ensure students don’t fall through cracks in the system.

The teacher will introduce the subject or theme of a given lesson and the kids are then able to do the coursework based on where they are at, with all the necessary resources available to them online — including, critically, any previous information they feel they might have missed.

This ensures no student slips through the cracks and ends up in a vicious cycle of falling further and further behind.

But student performance is also vigilantly monitored, with teachers always encouraging kids who are struggling to come forward and hosting after-school homework sessions to harness that last remaining spark of energy before they go home and switch off in front of the telly.

In other words, it is a whole bunch of little things that combine to make one very big thing.

And it is a phenomenon.

So much so that internationally renowned schooling guru Pasi Sahlberg, who has worked at Harvard University, the World Bank and the Gonski Institute for Education at UNSW and just taken up a post at the University of Melbourne, has decided that this is the place he will send his own boys when they start high school.

You don’t get a higher endorsement than that.

Originally published as The school which is redefining Aussie education as we know it