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Rosmini Collegehttps://www.rosmini.school.nz/ |
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| # of unique students – ~400 Type of provider – School, public, state school Primary distance modality – Synchronous |
Background
Rosmini College is a Catholic Boys’ School founded by the Rosminian order serving students on Auckland’s North Shore. The school is not specifically a distance learning provider (i.e., the school is a brick-and-mortar state school). However, Rosmini College does offer some of its own distance learning programming that is not captured in any of the earlier profiles. Additionally, while the school has a long history of participation in the Virtual Learning Network Primary, many of the Rosmini College’s own distance learning offerings predate their experience with that distance learning provider.
The inclusion of Rosmini College as a distance learning provider is not to suggest that they are the only brick-and-mortar state school that is offering distance learning opportunities, simply the only one that was identified.
Governance
Rosmini College is a state school under the Education and Training Act 2020, as such the regulations governing the school are the same as any other brick-and-mortar state school (Government of New Zealand, 2024a).
Resourcing
A single teacher volunteers their time to oversee and manage the Rosmini College’s distance learning offerings. In the past, the school has received a small grant from a non-governmental organisation to assist with activities related specifically to The Ocean That Connects Us project.
Programming
Rosmini College offers four different distance learning opportunities.
Virtual Merienda are Filipino language courses run under the heading of “club” as a part of the school’s outreach. The tutors – 6 in total – are all students themselves who volunteer one or more hours each week to teach online class. To be eligible to be a tutor, students must show Filipino language competency and ability to plan and deliver online lessons, reliability, social maturity and keen interest to pass on the Filipino language. These Filipino language courses are offered at level 1, level 2, or level 3. Schools who have their students participate in these online classes are requested to provide passive supervision for their students and address any issues that might arise.
Over the Back Fence1 is a programme run in conjunction with the health studies programme that began in 2005 with 16-17 year old students teaching weekly physical activity (i.e., fitness and skill development) lessons for up to eight classes of primary age students attending the school over the back fence. Beginning in 2012 this programme evolved where these older students were teaching weekly online video lessons to classrooms in New Zealand and overseas (e.g., in 2014 there were students in 40 classes spanning 10 countries). By 2013 the programme was expanded to include both younger and older students who would collaborate with students in other schools on different inquiry project-based learning activities focused on student voice, collaboration, and global thinking. At present, the Over the Back Fence programme is scheduled either during regular class time or students volunteer to meet online after school or during the evening hours.
The Ocean That Connects Us2 is a club that grew out of a pilot project between Rosmini College and a school in Chile in May 2022. The project provides students the opportunity to collaborate in small groups with other students from around the globe on the impact of climate change on physical, social, or indigenous environments. These collaborations occur online typically on a weekly schedule between February and November.
The South African-New Zealand (SANZ) project began in 2017. The project provides opportunities for students at Rosmini College to interact through synchronous tools with students at a school in South Africa for 30 minutes a week. The goals of the programme are focused on communication and interpersonal skills.
Activity
The level of activity in these three distance learning programs are presented below.
| Name of the course or learning opportunity | Amount of content in hours / frequency of class meeting | Number of students | Number of Māori students | Amount of teacher time |
| Virtual Merienda | 2 different classes each of which meet for 30 minutes/week | 26 students across 5 schools | 1 | 6 Rosmini tutors worked together in small groups (student security and always ensuring tutor attendance) |
| Over the Back Fence | ~30-35 minutes per call with 539 connections in 2024 that involved 29 schools in 17 different countries | Hundreds at Rosmini and in classrooms across the OTBF network | 15-20 | Hard to pin down as each week number of connections varied |
| The Ocean That Connects Us | 18 working groups each engaged in a collaborative inquiry across 11 countries Completed first year of programme with an online symposium | 185 | 5-6 | Preparation and online meetings took place before school-lunch times and evenings (depending on time zones), which was. estimated to be approximately 8 hours/week |
| South African-New Zealand Project | 30 minutes/week | 8 | 0 |
References
Government of New Zealand. (2024a). Education and training act 2020. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0038/latest/LMS170676.html
1 For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/rosmini.school.nz/2020airpollution/home
2 For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/rosmini.school.nz/totcus/home