New coach for Future Problem Solvers; Success in 2021 FPS national finals

New coach

for Future Problem Solvers

Future Problem Solving coach, Susannah Debenham, guides students Tasmin Wingfield and Emmett Lawler (both Year 6). Success in 2021 FPS national finals

Students and teams involved in Future Problem Solving at St Andrew’s College have an enviable record of success both nationally and internationally.

In 2022, they have a new teacher and coach, Susannah Debenham, who is excited to have taken the reins from former coach, Julie Rogers. “Julie has such a huge reputation both here and overseas, so it is humbling to follow in her footsteps. At the same time, I am excited to bring my style of teaching and passion for innovation and research into the programme.”

Susannah is working part-time for 14 hours a week with future problems solvers in both the Preparatory and Secondary Schools at St Andrew’s College. She is also a teacher at St Mary’s Primary School where she works with students with special abilities. Her diverse background includes experience as a classroom teacher and working in tertiary education in Physical Education and teacher education.

Future Problem Solving is an extension programme offered by many schools in New Zealand. It gives students with exceptional abilities such as a high capacity for acquiring knowledge, or other mental skills, the opportunity to spend time with students of similar capability, as they apply a unique set of thinking skills to an emerging global problem. “As a teacher, I help students to apply their natural aptitude and develop depth and complexity in their critical, analytical, and future thinking skills. We thoroughly research the global topic, think about all perspectives, and innovate on the research to come up with what solutions to the problem could look like in 20 years’ time. The process is steeped in scientific pedagogy.”

Susannah says it can be a significant learning curve for students as they learn to take risks and move past any limiting beliefs. “Developing their intellectual gifts is a bit like getting a bicycle for Christmas. Once they learn how to ride it or use it, they get a genuine thrill as they experience it. The students bring so much vitality with their knowledge, so it is definitely a two-way street in terms of learning.” In their final competition with 2021 coach, Julie Rogers, as pictured below, St Andrew’s College students achieved outstanding results at the national finals of the Future Problem Solving Competition. Those to finish in the top three were: • Hannah Withers (then Year 8) first Junior

Individual competition; • Teresa Steiner, Matthew Bluck,

Ania Kuziel, Charlotte Kyle (all then Year 8): first Division J team; • Sophie Schouten, Alexa Collis,

Alyssa Geddes, Nika Meyn (all then Year 6): first Division Y team; • Honour Fraher-Richardson,

George Flanagan, Anton Zhang,

Fraser Walls (all then Year 7): third Division JB team.