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OneSchool Global – New Zealand

https://www.oneschoolglobal.com/ 

# of unique students – Up to 1,537
Type of provider – School, private
Primary distance modality – Synchronous & Asynchronous

OneSchool Global – New Zealand declined to participate fully in this year’s study but provided information on class sizes. The profile was created primarily using publicly available material.

Background

OneSchool Global – New Zealand (OneSchool Global) is a co-educational, private composite school based in Auckland. The Education and Training Act, 2020 defines a composite school as “a school that offers education to students in any of years 1 to 8 and in any of years 9 to 13” (Government of New Zealand, 2024a, p. 38). The school is a part of a network of schools that include more than 120 campuses in 20 countries. OneSchool Global was established by the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

The school began in New Zealand in 2003 as a brick-and-mortar school called Westmount School with 11 campuses. In fact, OneSchool Global still has 17 campuses across New Zealand, and OneSchool Global New Zealand also works closely with three campuses in Argentina. At some point during the past twenty years OneSchool Global transitioned to include an online delivery option for students.

Governance

According to the Education and Training Act 2020, a private school is defined as a school registered under section 214, which reads:

214 Registration of private schools

(1) This section applies if the managers of an existing school or proposed school wish the school to be registered as a private school under this section.

(2) The managers must apply to the Secretary, on a form provided by the Secretary for the purpose, for its provisional registration as a primary, secondary, or special private school, or as a school of 2 or all of those descriptions.

(3) The provisional and full registration of private schools, and the operation of private schools, must be done in accordance with Schedule 7. (p. 164)

Schedule 7 of the act provides approximately 10 pages of legislative regulation around the following areas.

  • Provisional and full registration of private schools
  • Criteria for registration as private school
  • Suitable premises
  • Additional and substituted premises to be approved
  • Tuition standards
  • Managers to be fit and proper persons
  • Manager must have regard to statement of national education and learning priorities
  • Managers must advise Secretary of school ceasing operation
  • Review of private schools
  • Secretary’s actions in relation to private schools
  • Duration of suspension
  • Process for cancellation of registration
  • Grants for private schools
  • Record-keeping in relation to grants to private schools
  • Providing accounts to Secretary
  • Suspensions and expulsions from private schools

As OneSchool Global declined to participate, any additional regulations based on their board or larger organisational affiliation were not available.

Resourcing

As OneSchool Global declined to participate, there was no information available with respect to resourcing.

However, the government does provide grants to private schools through the private school subsidy funding pool (Ministry of Education, 2024a), which is distributed at a set rate per student. According to Circular 2022/08 – Private School Subsidy Funding 2023 the rates for 2023 were (Ministry of Education, 2022):

Year Level 2023 Funding Rate GST Exclusive 2023 Funding Rate GST Inclusive
Year 1-6 $880.54 $1,012.62
Year 7-8 $964.23 $1,108.87
Year 9-10 $1,234.01 $1,419.11
Year 11-15 $1,874.16 $2,155.28

Based on the data from Official Information Act Request 1321408, OneSchool Global received funds in 2023 from this subsidy (Ministry of Education, 2024b). Unfortunately, the response to the request only lists the schools that received funding, and not the amount of funding or any details on how it was used.

Programming

OneSchool Global uses a self-directed learning approach beginning around year 3. This approach is operationalised by having the students set goals for learning in diaries, which they can reflect on with their teachers on how and whether they have achieved those goals. The actual learning is supported through a mixture of online and face-to-face methods of curriculum delivery. The online portions include both synchronous online classes and a comprehensive collection of asynchronous course content housed in a learning management system.

Even though OneSchool Global New Zealand is based in New Zealand, the instructional materials and the direct instruction could come from anywhere in their network – as the network is designed to operate as a single multi-national school.

As OneSchool Global declined to participate, there was no additional information available with respect to the nature of their programming.

Activity

According to the Education Counts website, the school enrolment is described as so.

Level Total
Year 01 0
Year 02 2
Year 03 146
Year 04 147
Year 05 133
Year 06 124
Year 07 129
Year 08 149
Year 09 130
Year 10 118
Year 11 131
Year 12 147
Year 13+ 158
Total 1,514

There was only a single student of Māori descent enrolled. OneSchool Global’s submission of class size data indicated the following.

Course Number of students
Year 9 Commerce 130
Year 9 English 130
Year 9 French 123
Year 9 Mathematics 127
Year 9 Science 130
Year 9 Social Sciences 130
Year 9 Technology 130
Year 10 Commerce 117
Year 10 English 118
Year 10 French 113
Year 10 Mathematics 101
Year 10 Science 118
Year 10 Social Sciences 118
Year 10 Technology 118
Year 11 Commerce 119
Year 11 DVC 33
Year 11 English 105
Year 11 English Extension 25
Year 11 Foundational English 1
Year 11 Foundational Mathematics 15
Year 11 Food Technology 20
Year 11 Geography 47
Year 11 History 39
Year 11 Horticultural Science 44
Year 11 Mathematics 103
Year 11 Mathematics Extension 32
Year 11 Physical Education 62
Year 11 Resistant Materials Technology 20
Year 11 Science 128
Year 12 Accounting 46
Year 12 Business Studies 69
Year 12 Chemistry 1
Year 12 DVC 24
Year 12 Economics 15
Year 12 English 131
Year 12 English Extension 15
Year 12 Food Technology 20
Year 12 Foundational Mathematics 21
Year 12 Gateway 17
Year 12 Geography 42
Year 12 History 43
Year 12 Horticultural Science 46
Year 12 Mathematics 115
Year 12 Mathematics Extension 10
Year 12 Physical Education 53
Year 12 Physics 6
Year 12 Resistant Materials Technology 28
Year 12 Science 25
Year 13 Accounting 31
Year 13 Accounting Scholarship 16
Year 13 Business Studies 55
Year 13 Calculus 7
Year 13 Chemistry 2
Year 13 DVC 19
Year 13 Economics 14
Year 13 English 134
Year 13 English Scholarship 10
Year 13 Food Technology 34
Year 13 Foundational English 13
Year 13 Foundational Mathematics 30
Year 13 Gateway 18
Year 13 Geography 35
Year 13 History 52
Year 13 Horticultural Science 42
Year 13 Mathematics 56
Year 13 Physical Education 83
Year 13 Physics 4
Year 13 Resistant Materials Technology 22
Year 13 Science 41
Year 13 Statistics 65

As OneSchool Global declined to participate fully, and the school does operate 17 campuses, it is impossible to determine how many of these students were involved and/or enrolled in their online programming.

Historical Data

 


References

Government of New Zealand. (2024a). Education and training act 2020. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS170676.html

Ministry of Education (2022). Circular 2022/08 – Private school subsidy funding 2023. Government of New Zealand. https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/publications/education-circulars/latest-circulars/circular-2022-2/

Ministry of Education (2024a). Resourcing information for private schools. Government of New Zealand. https://www.education.govt.nz/school/funding-and-financials/resourcing/private-schools-resourcing-information/

Ministry of Education (2024b). Responses to Official Information Act requests. Government of New Zealand. https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/information-releases/responses-to-official-information-act-requests/