Ngapuhi backs state school converting to charter school

The Herald reports:

Northland College is making moves to become a charter school and is the first state school to publicly reveal it is doing so.

The Kaikohe school says it desperately needs to do something to lift achievement for its predominantly Māori students and has the backing of Northland iwi, Ngāpuhi.

Excellent. Great to see them ambitious to do better.

Northland College principal Duane Allen said he was formerly a strong opponent of charter schools, but after five years in charge of Northland College he saw a need to try a different approach.

“We’ve got really, really good people here who are working really hard to try and come up with innovative solutions within the current system… and we haven’t been able to get the direction that we’d like to. So it’s a genuine investigation and step into an alternative that we think could be quite powerful.”

Always impressed when people have genuine change of mind.