A total of $137,493 has been injected into trialling innovative teaching approaches at two Tauranga schools, as part of the government's $359 million ‘Investing in Educational Success' initiative.

Year 5 and 6 students Jacob Pinto, Spencer Wills, Grace Summerville and Emma Thornton using a netbook to look at an E-portfolio. Photo by Bruce Barnard.

St Mary's Catholic School received $97,293, while Tauranga Girls' College gets $40,200 for projects running for 18 months and two years respectively.

St Mary's Catholic School on Thirteenth Ave is using the funds to have multiple teachers investigating the impact of digital conversations on teacher practices, parent engagement and student learning and achievement.

St Mary's Catholic School principal Ben Fuller says the primary school reports their pupils' achievement online using an E-portfolio for each child.

'Essentially the project is going to be around upskilling teachers to better use that critical conversation strategy when applying to student learning.”

Ben says the key purpose of the innovation is using a student-centred approach to assessment and reporting using an online environment, with a particular focus on providing access to pupils with special education needs, Maori, Pasifika and those from low-socioeconomic backgrounds.

'It's going to allow us to utilise a lot of experts within our school, further develop the online platform and also give teachers some additional release time to work one-on-one with students.”

Children traditionally receive a written report, which Ben says can sometimes be misplaced.

'Given that this is an online E-portfolio, in theory, it could be with the child for the rest of their lives or as long as we have internet.”

Ben says the school is thankful to the Ministry of Education for granting approval for its proposal.

'We look forward to hopefully making a contribution to the wider educational community with our outcomes and findings.”

Tauranga Girls' College's teacher inquiry project will also see E-portfolios used to improve academic performance of Year 10 priority learners through pastoral care, connections with the students' families and communities.

This current funding round is committing about $2.6 million of the $10 million total fund, with the next funding round opening in November 2015.