http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/authors-new-arts-school-offers-later-start-times-to-reflect-teenagers-sleep-patterns-20160125-gmdlwk.html
I was actually a little confused when I read this piece at first and thought they were talking about Candlebark. Nope, he's actually opening a new school! Wow...
For a bit of context, John Marsden is an Australian author. A very well known Australian author. He is also the founder and principal of a school in Victoria known as Candlebark School. Formerly it was a P-10 school, it is now a P-7 school. The school itself is pretty much what I'd call a "common sense school." In other words, kids still undertake the standard lessons, but students actually get to do things that students in other schools (private and public) don't get to do either because of fear of litigation, governmental policy or some other random rule i.e. religious or cultural beliefs. It's also the only school I've come across that actually has a "Parent Code of Conduct" clearly outlined. A better idea of how Candlebark differs from other schools can be found here. The article I posted up top also points out the fact that the students spend 20 minutes in the afternoon cleaning up. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially given that most classrooms these days encourage (if not require) students to clean up a little bit at the end of the day, but this takes it further by not hiring cleaning staff and winds up being very similar to Japan.
As a result of his school, he's now opened up a new high school, called the Alice Miller School. The methodology is very similar to Candlebark and is also open from Year 7 onwards, giving the students the option of whether they want to stay at Candlebark or move on in Year 7 (Victoria has the primary/secondary split between Years 6 and 7). The students in Years 9 and 10 (and in some cases Year 8) will be encouraged to take on a VCE subject and why shouldn't they be discouraged? If they're smart enough to take those classes on, they should do so! The teachers will be recruited as having life experience or something very fascinating or interesting. This isn't necessarily a reflection of age either-for example, one of the teachers has a PhD, while another teacher spent her childhood years living in Africa, Europe and Australia.
Both schools will be run under the very same methods-all the students will participate in the school life as much as the staff (instead of this ideal that the students are the "future princes or princesses" that some schools seem to run by), children will be given the chance to experience things that other schools don't necessarily do (see my point above-a solid example of this would be using chainsaws and building/starting campfires). The students are still supervised and are shown how to do things safely, but they're allowed to do them!
Most importantly, the fees are actually fairly solid and are very inclusive. That is, the only "extra" costs from the parents are for individual music lessons and optional fencing tutoring. The cost is around 11k-13k per year and that also covers camps, stationery, textbooks, excursions, bus fare you name it (and they pride themselves on undertaking regular camps). This is in comparison to most private schools where the extra costs include uniforms, textbooks, stationery, camps, excursions and other "special" events which can easily turn a $8-$9000 fee up to $12,000.
It'll be interesting to see how this school works out long-term and I hope to see him opening schools interstate soon! Hell, I'd work there! ^_^
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