We recognise that every child is a unique individual and comes to school with their own set of values, culture, experiences, and most importantly they have their own learning needs and strengths.
Learners need to be active participants in the learning process. At Eskdale School, we aim to empower our students to learn and achieve personal excellence (NZC p.9) Empowerment comes through greater student agency.
"Student agency is described as giving learners the ‘power to act'. Learners move from being passive recipients to being much more active in the learning process, and in the decisions about learning.” Derek Wenmouth.
Student Agency at Eskdale School increasingly involves students having greater choice with their learning activities, greater choice in their learning, greater choice of when to work in groups(collaboration) and when to work independently, and the when, where and how they learn.
Student Agency at Eskdale School is undertaken through a variety of strategies including play-based learning, must do’s and can do’s, flexible timetables with optional workshops and most importantly teachers increasingly handing over the controls to the students. The students will know what they need to learn, why and how they can learn it