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Spectrum Online Academyhttps://www.spectrumeducation.com/spectrum-academy-vision/ |
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| # of unique students – 15 Type of provider – Programme, for profit Primary distance modality – Synchronous |
Background
Spectrum Online Academy is a private online learning programme that was founded in 2021. It is a part of the parent Spectrum Education company.
Governance
Spectrum Online Academy is a private online learning programme, and not a private school. As such, families who wish to enrol their students with Spectrum Online Academy must apply to obtain approval to home educate and receive a Certificate of Exemption from Enrolment at a Registered School (which Spectrum Online Academy will assist the family complete). While this places regulatory requirements on the family, there are no legal obligations to Spectrum Online Academy.
Resourcing
As a private program, Spectrum Online Academy is resourced through individual tuition paid by the students and their families. For domestic students, there is a non-refundable $295 application for one student, $150 per additional student, followed by learning coach and school fees outlined as:
Years 0-10
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- $5,000 per year or $1,250 per learning cycle
Years 11-13
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- $1,600 per subject per year or $400 per subject per learning cycle
- Additional short course subjects are $450 per learning cycle
There are four learning cycles per year.
Spectrum Online Academy also accepts international students from year 4-10 and the fee for those students is $14,500 per year or $3,625 per learning cycle.
Programming
The programming offered by Spectrum Online Academy is based on four 10-week learning cycles. Each learning cycle is broken up into modules as follows:
- 2-3 week integrated unit focus
- 1 week ‘off grid’ catch up & single focus
- 3 week integrated unit focus
- 1 week ‘off grid’ catch up & single focus
- 2-3 week integrated unit focus
The units tend to be interdisciplinary in nature, but generally focus on one or more of these learning areas: literacy/English, learning languages, numeracy/mathematics, science, health and physical education, technology, social sciences, and the arts.
The curriculum is delivered by a learning coach from Spectrum Online Academy (who are fully qualified, New Zealand trained teachers), alongside the student’s parents as learning partners. The delivery is conducted in a synchronous fashion using Zoom, with resources being shared using Google Classroom. The learning coaches provide a weekly one-to-one check-in and goal-setting sessions to monitor student progress and personalise the student’s learning. Spectrum Online Academy also provides specific subject tutors for 30-minute weekly sessions in maths, science, and other subjects.
Activity
During the 2024 school year there were a total of 12 unique students enrolled with Spectrum Online Academy, none of which were Māori.
| Course | Amount of content or frequency of class meeting | Nature of delivery (synchronous/ asynchronous) | Number of students | Amount of teacher time |
| Morning Meetings | Everyday | 60/40 | 12 | 2 hours x 5/week |
| English | Everyday | 50/50 | 12 | 2 hours x 5/week |
| Maths | Everyday | 60/40 | 12 | 2 hours x 5/week |
| Science | Everyday | 80/20 | 3 | 1 hour x 5/week |
| Spanish | Twice/week | 80/20 | 1 | 1 hour x 2/week |
Historical Data