A New South Wales school has adopted a hybrid learning model where students can work one day per week from home.
Burradoo's Chevalier College model was set up in a way where most Mondays, students attend school online as part of a flexible learning trial.
It's principal, Greg Miller, told Breakfast the idea for hybrid learning came from thinking about how school may be set up for the future.
"We asked the question here at Chevalier 'what might education look like in three to five years time?'"
Miller said out of this conversation with staff, students and the school board, came up a programme called "future facing", which held a raft of different initiatives.
"One of those is the option for some students [in our senior years] to learn from home one day a week ... it turns out to be most Mondays just the way we've set our timetable up."
Miller said Monday became a preferred day for the flexible learning day after conversations with parents and staff, as it offered a "gentler" start to the week while keeping students engaged for extra-curricular activities and social engagements over the weekend.
Zoom wasn't on the cards either for the students, as students were assigned work from their teachers and were given set goals and complete it from home.
"The work is generally what we call entry level or surface level learning, that allows students to read text, view videos, take notes, to review notes. When they arrive at the classroom from Tuesday to Friday, we can accelerate the opportunity to do deeper learning activities such as debates, experiments and alike so the learning is linked throughout the week."
Miller said the school believed the teacher was the single biggest factor in a child's learning experience, so they were trying to maximise deeper learning time throughout the week and fortnight, and front-load the work that could be done without the presence of a teacher.
To qualify for the flexible learning day, students were required to pass a credential test before the school went through requirements and expectations with families, who made the final decision.
"The parents can withdraw that privilege for their students and so can we as the school, we haven't needed to do that yet, and hopefully we never do."
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