The 81 students of Canberra's newest public high school appear to be in for a more traditional school experience in a modern campus.
Shirley Smith High School in the new Gungahlin suburb of Kenny opened for its first year 7 cohort on Tuesday, a year after it was initially expected to open.
In line with the new ACT government policy, inaugural principal Rebecca Pearce said the students will have to switch off their phones and put them in their bags for the entire school day.
The policy aims to cut the classroom distractions, reduce cyber bullying and get students playing and talking to each other in break times.
"It really is for us about supporting the learning, which includes learning how to appropriately use your mobile phone," she said.
There are signs the directorate has pulled back on some of the more experimental elements of other recent public schools which went head-first into inquiry and project-based learning.
Mrs Pearce said the school would build on the foundation skills and knowledge gained in primary school with explicit teaching accompanied by a small amount of student-led, inquiry work.
"We'll be doing our core subjects with explicit instruction and working through building our maths, science, English, [humanities and social sciences] and [physical education] concepts," she said.
"Students will rotate through project-based learning around the arts and technology so they'll get exposure to all of the curriculum areas in that space through really relevant, authentic projects.
"And then we'll also do some small amount of inquiry work to build general capabilities and to really build that learner capacity in our young people alongside their subjects."
The layout of the school reflects this philosophy. The general learning spaces are single-class rooms with sliding glass doors giving the option to work in a larger space as needed. There is not a bean bag in sight.
Students will have the chance to give their input into their school life, such as house groups and what the school mascot should be.
Year 7 students Ifrah Ahmad and Aurora Bailey were excited to be part of the foundation cohort.
"I'm just really excited to be in this new school because it feels like we're the first people here and we're bringing the culture to school," Ifrah said.
Aurora thought she might need a map to get used to the big new campus.
The new school, named after Indigenous activist Shirley Smith, has eight teachers on staff to take four classes at a time.
Tackling the teacher shortage
Education Minister Yvette Berry said the Education Directorate had a successful recruitment program with 166 new teachers beginning in the public school system for 2024.
"We currently have 26 vacancies, 15 of those are permanent positions, and we have a continuous recruitment program to make sure that those positions are filled and as vacancies arise that we can fill them as well," Ms Berry said.
"We've had a really good recruitment and induction and we've got a great enterprise agreement. Canberra is a great place to live and work. So we feel like we've done everything we can.
"But we won't leave any stones unturned and we'll continue to make sure that we provide the best working arrangements for our school teachers to ensure that our young people get the best quality education."
NSW recently put a callout to retired teachers in an attempt to cover hundreds of vacant teacher positions across the state.
Ms Berry said the ACT's approach had been to make the teacher's work environment the best it could be.
Part of this is an extra pupil free day at the beginning of every school term, creating a headache for working parents who need to make childcare arrangements for these days.
ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations president Liane Joubert said while some families would find the pupil free days difficult to manage, parents understood that teachers needed the time to plan quality lessons as well as participate in quality professional development.
"Pupil free days can be tricky to juggle for working parents," she said.
"But having a consistent arrangement at the start of term makes it more manageable."
