Three years in: What Haileybury Pangea has learned from building an online school from the ground up

Three years ago, Haileybury Pangea launched as Victoria’s first online private school. Only a year later, Haileybury Pangea expanded into the Northern Territory. Since then, student numbers have risen, more teachers have joined the online classrooms, the number of subjects and co-curricular activities have grown, and the technology that delivers Haileybury Pangea has evolved.

As the school looks towards its fourth year, we sat down with Joanna Baker, Haileybury Pangea’s inaugural Head of Campus, to reflect on the biggest lessons learned so far, the assumptions the team have challenged, and what the future of online learning could look like.

Q. What has it been like to build Haileybury Pangea from the ground up?

Most schools operate within long-established systems. We didn’t. Haileybury Pangea gave us the rare opportunity to intentionally design the learning experience we want students to have, guided by the science of learning and the pedagogical pillars that make Haileybury a success.

We truly started with a blank slate and have challenged many assumptions about how learning happens and what students need. Having a restless mindset, always looking to improve and being open to new ways of doing things, are elements you don’t find often in schools.

Like any start-up, Haileybury Pangea launched with the minimum viable product, moved quickly and built from there. It’s a fast-moving environment, and what the school delivers and the way we deliver that, has evolved. Every decision is research and data informed and we pay close attention to who is learning with us, how our students are progressing and how best to support them.

Q. What assumptions have you challenged along the way?

There’s a certain paradigm about how education is delivered that has been around for a long time, and that’s the traditional classroom with students in one place and the teacher standing in front of them. Haileybury Pangea challenges that.

I think one of the biggest fears when moving into a blended learning model, which is a mix of live lessons, peer collaboration and self-paced learning, is ‘will students be able to learn independently, away from a teacher?’ and we’ve shown they can. We do a lot of work with students around motivation and building self-regulation skills – and these are the very skills student need when they graduate. That has been a real proof point for us.

Q. What kind of research and data has been important to help you steer Haileybury Pangea?

Each semester, we review our teaching and learning approaches, look at the pain points and challenges, and analyse our student growth data.

Recently we completed a comprehensive review that included student and teacher surveys and drilled deep down into their insights and feedback. We also look at our academic benchmark data, and how the students who have been with us since the beginning, have grown. The focus for us is always growth for every student. We are very clear about the importance of looking at where each student began, what point they are at now in their learning and growth, and the value we’ve add along the way.

Q. What do you think Haileybury Pangea has done particularly well?

We’ve created a genuine choice for families who have been under-served in the traditional educational landscape.

We support families who travel frequently and want their child to have a consistent, rigorous education. Regional families who may not have access to a high-quality educational option and for whom boarding is expensive. And for young athletes and performing arts students, we provide a model that doesn’t force them to choose between their education and their ambitions in their chosen field. Meeting all these needs has been a major achievement and great source of satisfaction for the team, and for me personally.

Q. What are you doing differently now from when you started?

We’ve created more layers of very targeted student and staff support. For example, students wanted more academic support outside the classroom, so we introduced academic drop-in sessions where coaches, who are Haileybury graduates, support students with their study habits. We also run study hall, a virtual library-style space where students can jump online and work alongside each other and collaborate in real time.

Currently, we’re looking at how we can increase our support for young athletes by connecting with their coaches, family and all the people in their life so they benefit from a united approach.

Each department has also adapted the instructional model to best suit the nature of their subject and how that subject is delivered. As an example, the mathematics team have done a lot of work building the self-paced component of learning to maximise what students learn in the classroom. Across all subjects, teachers and Heads of Department have the autonomy to design and shape the self-paced component of learning that best suits their subject and students. The expertise of our teachers is crucial to the ongoing evolution of Haileybury Pangea.

Q. What have been the biggest learnings so far?

Flexibility is really important , not just for students but for staff too. Many schools and industries talk a lot about flexibility and autonomy for staff, and we’ve been able to provide that for our hybrid staff who work across Haileybury Pangea as well as Haileybury’s Melbourne campuses.

Increasingly, I think schools need to think more about that how they can offer their staff the kind of flexibility that so many other professions provide.

Another major learning is the power of having the One Haileybury approach. This has strengthened what we’ve been able to do. We’ve been able to leverage the strong foundations of Haileybury and the cross-campus support provided by the corporate services team. We bring in Haileybury’s expertise from finance and IT to the staff who design our courses, so they are fit for purpose. We haven’t just lifted and shifted existing courses online. Being one school has given us a huge advantage in launching Haileybury Pangea and, equally, what we learn feeds back into the broader Haileybury ecosystem.

Q. So, what do the next three years look like for Haileybury Pangea?

Our community has grown in a sustainable way, and this will continue to remain a priority as well as maintaining that personalised approach. Expanding access to Haileybury Pangea to other states and territories, and potentially internationally, is an exciting opportunity. We want to continue to push the boundaries and challenge how things are done in the educational landscape. And we want to continue demonstrating how to deliver a high-quality online learning experience, while raising the bar on what educational excellence can look like.