Second chance learning on the NQF

The Wellington Mission 4 Youth Day Programme is an alternative school for kids who have fallen so far through the cracks they are almost beyond reach.

Almost, but not quite, says school director Amelia Trotter. She set up the school three years ago under the auspices of the Wellington City Mission and refers to the school as 'hugely successful'.

Students attending the school are aged between 15 and 18 and come from varying backgrounds. Some of them barely have a reading age of seven; others are bright but for various reasons including drugs, alcohol and truancy, have failed in the school system. Generally they are the kids that mainstream schools can't help any more.

Many of the students are achieving a Record of Learning on the National Qualifications Framework. Amelia Trotter says the flexibility of the Framework helps in the school's mission to help kids, some of who have been out of the school environment for years, to return to learning.

The school focuses on Maths, English and keyboard skills. The students study through the Correspondence School programme at the level best suited to their capability. This year many are aiming to earn the National Certificate of Employment Skills.

Many of the students have earned unit standards on the Framework and last year two students sat School Certificate. Students are able to work at their own pace, listen to music while they do it and get one-on-one tutoring from two teachers, one full time and one part time. There is also a full-time social worker, a full-time counsellor and a full-time youth worker.

Sian Ewart, 16, starts her school work for the morning

"Here we get respect if we give it and we can work in our own time. It makes you want to do the work," she says. Incentives at the Mission school such as rewards for working well also help to keep her motivated, she says.

Sian has been at the school for two terms. She worked right up to the day before her baby was born and has been learning to touch type as well as studying Maths and English.

	Students like Nathan benefit from the one-on-one attention

Nathan passed Maths and English School Certificate last year and is now doing sixth form Maths.

Marcie O'Kech is 15. She started at the Mission 4 Youth school last month. This is the first time she has been to any sort of school for two years. She says she intends to make a "real go of it" at the Mission school.

Head teacher Edna Mahoney says some kids can actually work better listening to music

"They get a certificate for achieving at a certain level and they think that is wonderful. But even if they don't get all the credits required for the National Certificate of Employment Skills, they still achieve some credits and we can point to that and its still an achievement for them," Edna says.

For the students, discovering that they are not 'dumb' and that they can achieve in this alternative environment is what motivates them and keeps them at school.

Eighty-five students have been through the school so far. Fifty-five percent of them have been Māori . The other half is made of Europeans and Pacific Island peoples. There is a minority of other ethnic groups.

	Mission 4 Youth school director Amelia Trotter holds the daily staff briefing

"The environment we provide here replicates a whanau. The smaller environment and one-on-one help works for Māori . We run kapa haka and teach Māori cultural heritage and once a year we have a Marae camp," she says.

Students study Maths, English and keyboard skills for the first part of the day and then an afternoon programme covers sport, driver's licence courses, music, art, kapa haka, health and hygiene, cooking, Māori culture, sex education, personal planning, drug and alcohol education, work experience and field trips, including Outward Bound courses.