What We Hope to Achieve at the Centre
All that we do at the Centre is based on the Christian belief in the value and uniqueness of each individual and so the respect due to the giftedness of each one. Our approach is geared to helping create a healthy self-esteem in our young people, to helping them become aware of their own worth and the worth of each other.
So, encouragement and affirmation play a large part in our approach, together with challenges designed to lead them to move beyond the limits that have become part of their self-image.
Together we try to become aware of the potential that is in each one, and to help the young person accept both the responsibility for his/her own choices and their outcomes and the challenge of his/her own growth and development towards a personal destiny. We work to help them attain the discipline needed to set and to work towards goals in line with what they want in life, so breaking out of the cycle of under-achievement and failure.
Important to these aims is creating a sense of "whanau", a sense of belonging, of respect and concern for others, for the well-being of the group and each of its members.
How We Operate
Our students come to the Centre through the referral system that directs them first to the Co-Ordinator of the North Shore Alternative Education Consortium. It is the Co-Ordinator's task to help the young person find an Alternative Education Centre (there are five such centres on the North Shore) that seems best suited to his needs and capabilities.
The Co-Ordinator, with the
young person and caregiver visit our Centre to talk over with the Director what
we have to offer and for them to see the set-up. If everyone feels that
placement here might work to advantage, the student is admitted to the Centre
for a two week trial period. If this goes well, and the student finds that she
can fit into this setting, she makes a "contract" to follow the spirit and the
rules of the Centre.
Each student is assessed to find what achievements and capabilities are there, and to enable us to work out a programme of studies and activities that meets her present needs and develops her potential.
The centre operates five days a week from 9.15 a.m. to 2.45 p.m.. The morning time (9.15 to 1.00) is a study time. We provide the basic disciplines of English, Maths, Social Studies, Geography and on the other three mornings students move at their own pace through the ASDAN programme. ASDAN is specifically designed for young people who have not been able to adjust to the regular classroom setting of the colleges, but who find that they can achieve when given a different educational approach. We have found the programme admirably suited to our students. In the afternoons there are recreational activities which give the young people another avenue in which to achieve and to grow in awareness of their own capabilities.
The Centre operates under its own Board of Trustees, under the control of the Orewa College Board of Trustees. Government funding comes through the Orewa Board - however funding from the Ministry of Education meets only 65% of our needs, and additional funding has to be sought from Trusts and Agencies and from supporters of the Centre.