It is estimated that anywhere up to 1.2 million students risk social isolation and chronic absence, often through no fault of their own, and while debate rages as to possible solutions to the growing number of kids who are missing school due to varying underlying stressors, some parents and students are responding by seeking alternative education settings.
Launched in 2008 in Deception Bay, Queensland’s Arethusa College is a special assistance school that has grown from one small location to 10 campuses across south-east Queensland, with more than 1500 students enrolled this year.
The state’s fastest growing independent school, it now has campuses in Spring Hill, Windsor, West End, Maroochydore, Forest Lake, Springwood, Logan, Ipswich and Caboolture.
Resolutely doing school differently, the college aims to equip students with the practical skills they need to succeed in life after school, opening up new learning and employment opportunities in a safe and flexible way that meets their individual needs as well as industry demands.
“We’re mainly catering for our vulnerable young people who probably haven’t found success in mainstream school or have experienced long-term disengagement – and then providing for them an all-inclusive, relevant education that suits them and meets them where they are at currently with their learning journey, and just engage them back in education,” head of Vocational Pathways Tony Byrnes tells EducationHQ.
Byrnes says the school does not use the term ‘school refusal’, because often it’s about students' social and emotional wellbeing.
“A lot of them they can’t come to school,” he says.
“There’s a lot written about this ‘anxious generation’ now and we’re experiencing it more and more. As soon as a student stops attending for a little bit in mainstream education, there’s a snowball effect, they become more and more distant because they’re just not experiencing success when they do turn up after a little while.”
Byrnes says the school’s approach is very much around accepting and educating young people without judgment.
“We assemble a wide range of support, so wraparound support that aims to clear their path to learning.
“Whatever barriers are stopping them from learning, we’ve got a huge support team that clears that path and engages them in education that’s primarily all about their interests, their needs, what they want out of it.”
Byrnes says the school’s methods are not beholden to NAPLAN, ATAR and the QCE, but focus on identifying what their students’ post-secondary school options are, giving them the independence to discover that for themselves and then giving them the support to help them get there after school.
At Arethusa College, students who have typically not thrived in traditional school settings are provided with a safe and flexible learning environment aimed at equipping them with the practical skills they need to succeed in life after school.
Having spent 15 years teaching in government schools, Byrnes says there’s far too much discussion and rhetoric surrounding the ‘digital age’, what careers will look like in the coming years, and not enough focus on the issues engulfing young people and their wellbeing, particularly relating to anxiety.
“They’re not experiencing success right now – so for us it’s about meeting the students where they are and doing what we can to engage them back in education to find out what their interests are right now and what they need.”
Students at Arethusa College determine their own learning pathways.
“So we offer a diverse range of curriculum options, flexible arrangements, and we’re not bound by timetables,” Byrnes says.
“It’s about student-centred strategies to improve learning outcomes that support mental health and wellbeing, attendance and school completion. And that in turn supports them post-school to be more independent and to be problem solvers.”
Sometimes, he explains, this looks like part-time employment, sometimes it’s contributing to their community via employment or with social enterprise programs.
“It can be university as well,” Byrnes says.
“I guess the biggest satisfaction for me is just them with their individualised learning plans, what they’ve sort of come up with, the goals they’ve set themselves and us just putting the support around to get there, just seeing that after school.”
Critically, the school is now a Registered Training Organisation which Byrnes says has been a major step.
“When we first started, we were using external providers, but it just didn’t suit our students.
“They couldn’t do it in our context, with our time frames, they could only have one small window where they could jump into the course, and that was it if they arrived a bit late, they were out. We had to become our own RTO.”
Always seeking innovation, the school is harnessing the creativity, troubleshooting skills and resilience of its students who have not typically thrived in traditional school settings, by helping them to channel their unique perspective into completing a Certificate III in New Business and Entrepreneurship.
Introduced six months ago along with six other cert qualifications, class numbers have already grown from an initial group of eight Year 11s to 38 students across five campuses.
“It was an important one that I wanted to add because it complements everything else the students will choose and do with us,” Byrnes says.
“So, whether that is hospitality, construction, active volunteering, sports, giving them some business skills, entrepreneurship skills to take that and grow it and pursue it after school, give it some commercial value, is really important.”
Head of Vocational Pathways Tony Byrnes, pictured above, says whatever barriers are stopping students from learning, the school has a huge support team that clears that path and engages them in education that's primarily all about their interests, their needs, and what they want out of their schooling.
As well, Brynes says, it is highly engaging and the students ‘love it’.
“In the course, they do some market analysis and risk awareness, they look into what is trending, they develop and ideate, plant the seed and watch it grow and give it some commercial value.
“And that’s going to be evident in our social enterprise program as well, where students are able to take the skills learned from that course with their interests, whether it’s construction, hospitality, whatever vocation that might be, and give that commercial value, maybe run a little business with it.”
“I guess if you’re talking the digital age and 21st century skills, that’s what it’s all about.”
Byrnes says what the school is doing isn’t rocket science, and there’s no special secret to its success.
“What we’re finding is once we take away all of the barriers to their learning and take away the time constraints, give them patience and let them just discover themselves, they’re just being so creative and allowed to flourish a bit more without the constraints of what mainstream school can sometimes apply.”
As for his colleagues, Byrnes says educators at Arethusa are reinvigorated by the school’s approach and student-centred philosophy.
“The goalposts they’re setting [in mainstream schools] are outdated and broken,” he says.
“Arethusa has opened my eyes to just people being in it for the right reasons again.
“They’re not just people stuck in their silos – ‘here’s my agenda’, ‘this is what’s going to help pursue my career’.
“You’ve got to be here for the students, you won’t survive if you’re not here for the students.”
