Aotearoa Infinite Academy will operate as an online school designed for students who face barriers to physical attendance. It will teach in small virtual classrooms, helping learners whose location or personal circumstances make traditional schooling difficult.
Te Aratika High School in Hawke’s Bay will focus on Māori and Pacific students who have become disengaged from education. The school’s vocational curriculum will prepare students for employment in the trades while integrating cultural values to build confidence and a sense of belonging.
Altum Academic, set to open in Wellington, will be the first charter school in the region. It aims to address the equity gap by offering a Classical Education model using the Trivium method, which includes three learning stages:
- Grammar stage: younger students learn facts and foundations through recitation and repetition.
- Logic stage: middle years focus on reasoning, asking “how” and “why”.
- Rhetoric stage: senior students learn to communicate and persuade effectively.
Part of a growing charter school network
The three new schools join another three charter schools announced earlier in August, bringing the total number of confirmed charter schools to 14. Seymour said more schools are expected to be announced by the end of the year, along with the first state schools converting to the charter model.
“I want to thank the Charter School Agency and the independent Authorization Board for their robust and fair application process,” Seymour said, noting that 52 applications were reviewed this year.
