Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti

Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti (UPT) is a state secondary school located in the city centre of Christchurch, New Zealand.

It was established in 2003 by the Christchurch-based Learning Discovery Trust^[2] which had earlier set up the primary Discovery 1 School, and is one of just eleven schools running under the "Designated Special Character" criteria of the Education Act 1989, Section 156^[3]:

"...The special character of schools established under this section is not specified in the Act, and parents may propose any desirable special character as long as no other local school is already delivering an education reflecting the same special character...".

This special character element is similar in some respects to the charter school system in the United States.

The school started with just 40 students (the "foundation forty"), but now has a roll of around 400 students, aged from 12 to 18 years of age.

Distinctive Elements

• Students can follow their own pathways of learning. The school uses the term 'Independent, Collaborative Learning' to distinguish between learning taking place in a class and learning driven or directed by the student outside of a classroom setting. Often called Inquiry Learning, this means that students can opt to work outside of classes and courses on their own passions and interests. In practice the amount of time given over to this individual, and often independent, style of learning varies according to the interests and maturity of each student. An example of a long-term group ICL is the Audiodreams project—an event management company being run by students during school hours.
• The school year at Unlimited is divided into seven or eight half-term blocks of four to six weeks. Students take courses in subjects for the duration of these half-term blocks, or can enroll for longer periods up to a full academic year.
• Students are vertically grouped in homebases (similar to form classes). The homebases have up to 15 students in them.
• Up until 2011 students were allocated 30 minutes each per week to meet with their Learning Advisor to discuss and progress their learning. In 2011 the school board reassessed the value of this level of individualized support and reallocated staff hours back towards classroom teaching, thus effecting a significant change in the school's model. Students are now allocated 15 minutes each per week to meet with their Learning Advisor.
• The school is based directly in the central business district,which was destroyed by the 2010 to 2011 earth quakes in Christchurch and has no grounds. Thus, they make use of community resources, such as the nearby Hagley Park, and the central Christchurch City Library.

The school is resourced with high-end information and communications technology (ICT), all students have the opportunity to gain qualifications in the New Zealand National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). There are a range of secondary school subjects on offer including English, Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences, Computing, Drama, Dance, and Physical and Outdoor education. In addition to these subjects, UPT offers a range of courses that are not normally provided at secondary schools. These include DJ performance and music production, Entrepreneurship, Holistic programmes, Philosophy, Psychology and Videogame design.

Courses provided by outside providers are also offered, for example Unlimited offers students the ability to participate in courses taught by Natcoll Design Technology, the Christchurch Polytechnic and The University of Canterbury. They also offer a Cisco networking course with the ability to gain a Cisco Certified Network Associate qualification taught by Aranui High School

February 2011 Christchurch earthquake

Students, Staff, and visitors were present in the Unlimited buildings when the 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit on February 22nd 2011. The school was evacuated to Latimer Square and CPIT, with the Latimer Square group then moving to CPIT. It is publicly unknown about the fate of The Crossing Basement, but Northern Tower has been Green placarded and Southern Star, which was reportedly extensively damaged, especially on the second floor, has been Yellow placarded. In a meeting held at Burnside High School, it was announced by John Mather that the school's Board of Trustees has made it clear to the community that Unlimited will not be returning to the current buildings which are leased in the Central City. Instead, it was announced the school will potentially build new buildings, relying on whether the Ministry of Education agrees to terminate the lease agreements. The school has temporarily been relocated to the Halswell Residential College campus in Halswell.

References

External links

• School Website: http://www.unlimited.school.nz
• ERO report: Education Review Report, May 2006
• Provider details at NZQA