Takapuna Grammar School

Takapuna Grammar School has a very identifiable community. We’re a Decile 10 co-educational grammar school in Auckland. We have a tremendously malleable student who is willing to learn, well supported by their home and well supported by their community in a school that’s tremendously, identifiably local. And with that comes a requirement and really a responsibility for us to deliver fantastic programs to push these students as far and as high as we possibly can.

Simon Lamb:
The Business and Enterprise Centre offers students an opportunity to gain lifelong learning skills so we’re talking about business in the widest possible sense, notions of philanthropy, of professional relationships, on how you engage others who might not normally be in your realm of experience.

“It’s been an exciting ride, it’s now six months since inception; we have just under 20 students in the programme at Year 11, and they will progress into Year 12 and Year 13 in the next two to three years.”

Nick Kearns:

Students would want to come into the course because the relationship between schools, universities and the workplace is changing a lot, and if students are exposed to business soon enough, and can work out how to relate to these people and learn what they are about, they can go straight from the school to the workplace, and then get the workplace to fund their university study, and so I think that, for students, there is a huge upside in getting a strong business understanding before they leave school.

Simon Lamb:

The students actually start school earlier by an hour; the flexibility then around that programme is that we can take the students out of the school, have speakers come in for long periods of time without cutting across other options and other subjects for the students; in many ways we can program the day in a much more flexible way than we would traditionally be able to do in a secondary school.

Nick Kearns:

Bringing business into the school and into the student’s lives is exciting because of a number of reasons; firstly, they don’t have subjects which cover the same material, and yet business is an extremely important part of their lives, and so when they go out to work, even if they don’t have their own business, they will be in an organization and it’s necessary that they have an understanding of what the reasons for the organisation are, how it all works and all that stuff, so you feel you’re really making a contribution to their lives.

The key innovation that we’ve used here at Takapuna is the introduction of experiential learning into the student’s programme. A good example of this was our recent trip to New Zealand Light Leathers, and exporting firm from Timaru, where the students presented a logo to the executives of this business. The executives were really pleased with what we had done; the students were really thrilled that they had managed to add value to a business, and I think that both parties hugely benefited from that experience.

Felmel Turner- Mwai:

“I’ve enjoyed going to the businesses because I actually get to see all the theory work actually being used and it makes more sense to me and becomes a bit more relevant to what we’re doing in class”.

Nick Kearns:

We try to integrate the learning for the students across the subject areas, in two ways really, firstly we keep them together as a class so that they have their common culture, if you like, across their English, maths, science subjects, they’re all the business class, and so that generates examples out of that sort of background. Also, the teachers that are teaching them know that they are working within the business school, and we send them to some training to upskill them in being business-friendly, if you like. It’s key that people realise business is one aspect of an education that would go alongside, science, or alongside drama or the arts, so that we’re getting people who are well rounded and take a speciality forward which might become their business; business itself, business education can’t exist in isolation, it makes no sense.

Simon Lamb:

The involvement of businesses and business people who are supporters of the school is critical for the development of the programme itself. The commitment businesses make is tremendously variable; some are offering scholarship as a financial contribution to the school; others are offering their businesses as an opportunity for experience for students; and other business men and women are coming in to tell their stories about what business has given them in terms of their life and the opportunities they’ve had.

Nick Kearns:

A business education is largely about management, managing of people and resources, and this ties in really well with the key competencies of the new curriculum – managing self, managing others, communicating and managing symbols, text, and so the personal growth that you can achieve through a business course because it’s experiential learning by doing , is really significant.

Simon Lamb:

One of our key competencies is participating and contributing, encouraging schools and students inside schools to contribute to a wider society, so I think the features of schools as isolated beings is going to be less common as schools look to communities to “grow their own” in many ways, to grow their own student capability, and a feature certainly of the Centre for Business and Enterprise of this school is the direct relationship between the school and its community with an employing inside this school with that task solely to create those connections (?)

Catherine Lidgard:

Obviously there is a direct benefit to the school, that speaks for itself, to the students particularly, but the businesses themselves, saying oh look we’ve enjoyed engaging with the students, I didn’t know the students did those things or thought those things or had those skills necessarily.

Stephen Tindall:

And I think it’s just awesome what they’re doing because what it does is it gives the kids the opportunity not only to learn in a classroom but to get out and see other businesses, gain experience, hear how other people do it, and then actually do something themselves, so it’s practical as well as theory.

Nick Kearns:

The rest of the success really depends upon having people who are motivated to teach business rather than staying within the traditional disciplines of economics and accounting; there must be some recognition that this is a new thing. Once you’ve got your course in place, it’s a matter of creating the consensus within the staff and making everybody understand that this is a good thing.

There is some resistance to businesses entering into schools, but I think that’s misplaced, since business is important in our lives and will remain important and become increasingly important, so you’ve got to create consensus among the staff and a willingness to send students your way.

Simon Lamb:

There’s a lot of planning that one has to do individually and then for me to have key discussions with the senior management team, with business men and women in the local community investigating the possibilities in terms of a model, talking to Onehunga Business School who had set up a business school prior to us by about four or five years, talking then to the Board of Trustees, and we are also at the same time engaged in discussions with the University of Auckland Business School with a view to engaging in a Memorandum of Understanding because we thought it important to grow connections beyond the Business School out into tertiary.

Nick Kearns:

It’s really important that the teaching staff or practitioners have been exposed to business in some way, so, having my own business, I’ve found extremely useful in bringing some reality and some ideas of difficulties off the page into the life of the students.

Simon Lamb:

One of the keys to success actually lies in the Principal’s relationship with his or her community; the degree of trust, the approachability, the perceptions in around the Principal and the school are critical to the success of an implementation such as this.

“It is with some pride and excitement that I’d really like to welcome you all to the inaugural Takapuna Grammar Centre for Business and Enterprise Annual Dinner. I pay special tribute to our inaugural laureate for the Centre of Business and Enterprise and Head Boy of 1969, Steven Tindall, and it is my pleasure to present of course. to Steven, the inaugural laureate.

Stephen Tindall:

It is really import for business to be involved in education because we recognise at the moment that we are lacking particularly in management skills and in marketing skills, international marketing in particular, and we are not going to be able to grow this internally – this is a whole new generation we’ve got to teach how to do this, so unless we get in there and participate it’s not going to happen.

Nick Kearns:

I think that there will be more business schools establishing at secondary level because of the changing nature of work. The pace of change in the modern workplace is particularly driven by IT, and is so fast now that by the time you leave university your knowledge is redundant. The students are maturing more quickly, the technology is facilitating going into the workplace earlier, and their creativity is a really important resource that we need to harness for the success of the New Zealand economy.

Stephen Tindall:

Look, I reckon this is something every school should think about doing, and the one thing I’ve got tonight is commitment from both the Onehunga High and Takapuna Grammar people to open their doors to any other school that wants to come and take a look, they’re happy to share with them.

Simon Lamb:

The future of education as proposed by the Government in terms of Schools Plus, is encouraging I think in the connections between the real world, the world out there that is dynamic and changing, and what schools are offering in terms of programmes, and I think the Centre for Business and Enterprise is one of probably many structures and innovations that are in existence already and yet to be founded, that are going to be encouraging schools to connect with the community and make life-long learning, not just a responsibility for the community and the school, but the community and the school together.