Flexibility Isn’t a Feature – It’s the Future

In my latest conversation on the future of education I spoke with Te Rina Leonard, CEO of Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (the New Zealand Correspondence School), and what started as a conversation about online learning quickly became something much more profound. We ended up exploring what it really means to build an education system that flexes to meet students where they are, rather than expecting them to contort themselves to fit our structures.

From “Last Resort” to Safety Net

Something that’s been bugging me for years, ever since I worked at Te Kura as director of eLearning. It’s the way Te Kura has often been dismissed as the “school of last resort.” You know the narrative – it’s the backstop when the “real” education system can’t cope. But talking with Te Rina, I’m reminded that this framing completely misses the point.

At any given time, Te Kura is working with about 8,000 full-time students across Aotearoa. That’s not a small side project. That’s a significant chunk of our young people who need something different from what traditional face-to-face schools can offer. And here’s the thing – 80% of those students come through Ministry of Education referrals because their needs simply weren’t being met in conventional settings.

As Te Rina puts it, they’re not the last resort. They’re the safety net that keeps young people engaged in education when life gets complicated. Sometimes that’s for a term, sometimes for a year, sometimes longer. The point is, Te Kura keeps the door open.

The Power of Flexibility

What struck me most in our conversation was Te Rina’s insistence that education needs to flex to meet kids’ needs, not the other way around. This sounds obvious when you say it out loud, doesn’t it? But think about how most of our education system actually operates. We’ve built structures – timetables, buildings, year levels, standardised approaches – and then we expect kids and whānau to adapt to them.

Te Kura flips this. They’re not constrained by bells and building maintenance. They can think more laterally about what learning looks like for each student. And the results speak for themselves. Their Summer School program had 4,000 students this year, getting that extra support they needed for NCEA credits while balancing whānau commitments and summer jobs. That’s flexibility in action.

It’s About Partnership, Not Isolation

One myth Te Rina was quick to dispel is that Te Kura doesn’t see itself as operating in isolation from the rest of the education system. In fact, they’re at their best when working alongside face-to-face schools, other agencies, and community organisations.

This really resonates with me because it connects back to a broader question about how we think about “system” in education. Too often, schools operate as isolated units – sometimes even with isolated classrooms within those schools. But what if we thought more intentionally about how different parts of our education ecosystem could work together to serve students better?

Te Rina shared how they’ve been inspired by the Big Picture Learning model, including their “Leaving to Learn” team. These are people whose job is to get out into the community and find internships, shadowing opportunities, and real-world connections for students. Imagine if you’re 16, dropped out of school with no qualifications, but you know you’re interested in trees. Instead of starting with “here are your literacy and numeracy prerequisites,” they start with that passion. They help you see why you need those prerequisites to get your forestry or horticulture qualification. That’s relevance driving engagement.

Rethinking the Role of Teachers

This partnership approach also extends to how Te Kura thinks about teaching roles. They’ve introduced the concept of “kaimahi” – essentially a learning adviser who works with about 15 students, really getting to know them and their needs. It’s like a form class, but more intentional about the caring and advocacy role.

What I appreciate is that they’re honest about what this means. When they initially wondered if teachers could take on finding internships as well, teachers rightly pushed back. “We’re teachers,” they said. “We want to focus on teaching.” So Te Kura brought in internship coordinators. They recognised that supporting young people well sometimes means having different people with different skills working as a team.

This feels important for how we think about education’s future. It’s not about making teachers do everything. It’s about building teams around students.

The Face-to-Face Paradox

Here’s something counterintuitive: despite being an online learning organisation, Te Kura is deeply invested in face-to-face connection. As Te Rina points out, their whānau are hungry for face-to-face contact. They want to eyeball their teachers just like parents in face-to-face schools do.

Technology enables flexibility, yes. But it doesn’t replace human connection. It’s a tool, not a destination.

What This Means for Education’s Future

This conversation with Te Rina has me thinking about what we could learn from Te Kura’s approach more broadly:

What if we designed education to be genuinely flexible from the start? Not as a special accommodation or alternative pathway, but as core design principle.

What if we thought more systematically about how different educational settings could work together? Te Kura isn’t competing with face-to-face schools. They’re filling a different need. How might this kind of thinking reshape how we approach educational provision?

What if we really centred student voice and relevance? Starting with a young person’s interests and building from there, rather than forcing them through a predetermined sequence.

What if we got better at building teams around students? Rather than expecting individual teachers to be everything for everyone.

A Challenge for All of Us

At one point in our conversation, Te Rina talked about Te Kura’s value of whanaungatanga – how they team through positive, accountable relationships. She was clear that this doesn’t mean being nice all the time. It means being accountable to each other and to the students they serve.

That feels like a challenge for all of us in education. Not the “black box” model where what happens in my classroom or my school is mine alone. But genuine teamwork in service of young people.

Listen to the Full Conversation

This blog post barely scratches the surface of our conversation. Te Rina brings such passion and clarity to this work, grounded in her background as an educational psychologist and her deep commitment to kids who need support most.

I’d encourage you to listen to the full episode to hear:

• More about how Te Kura’s model actually works in practice
• Te Rina’s insights on what draws students to Te Kura (hint: it’s often about whānau connections and cultural responsiveness)
• Her perspective on the future role of organisations like Te Kura in Aotearoa’s education system
• The story of how she accidentally enrolled in physiology instead of psychology (it’s a good one!)

Over 100 years of experience in distance and online learning doesn’t just disappear. There’s wisdom here that’s relevant to all of us thinking about education’s future.

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What are your thoughts on flexibility in education? How might your context learn from Te Kura’s approach? I’d love to hear from you in the comments or via email.

This podcast is a part of a series of conversations on the future of education. Find all episodes in the series here.