This week we were given the opportunity to go on a tour of the Pacific School of Innovation & Inquiry (PSII). We were led by the founder of the school, as well as one of the grade 12 students. They began by discussing the average day of a student at PSII, and the overall goals of the students and the school itself. A brief summary of PSII is its a student centred, student led school, where their main focus is that students are in charge of their learning. They use mainly inquiry projects as their main form of learning and assessment. At the beginning of each day the students are responsible to plan out what they’re going to do, what lectures they’re going to attend, and anything else they need to be successful. The set up of the building itself was super cool to see, as they had many alternative spaces (like a recording studio) that you don’t see in a typical school.
I do see the appeal of a school like this, and I can understand why it would work for a lot of people. However, personally this kind of structure would not have worked for me as a high school student. I always liked the structure of a typical school, and I think it helped set me up for university.
Link to PSII website:
What the PSII learners are doing at school: