Revolutionary Gold Coast Christian School

A Gold Coast Christian school is set to become Australia’s first ‘dual-shift’ private school next year.

The Village Yard Christian School at Mudgeeraba will operate two learning shifts each day from the same facilities.

The Gold Coast Bulletin reports the school is the brainchild of the executive head of the Coast’s Hillcrest Christian College, Jeff Davis.

He says the ‘dual shift’ model will allow teachers to be paid high salaries in “enhanced teaching conditions”, while keeping fees low.

Nearly a thousand families representing 1,500 students have already registered their interest in signing up.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO PLAY A MAJOR ROLE IN DUAL SHIFT MODEL

The school recently received official accreditation from the Queensland Non-State Schools Accreditation Board and is on track to open in 2027.

Mr. Davis said it would be “heavily AI-influenced” from day one, with personalised, self-paced learning built into its core model.

Its approach will draw on the work of global AI in Education entrepreneur Priya Lakhani, whose education technology company breaks learning into short content ‘nuggets’ that students move through at their own pace.

Each classroom would  be staffed by a lead teacher, a final-year practicum student working as a paid teaching assistant and a support aide – with AI described by Mr. Davis as “a fourth teacher in the room”.

TECHNOLOGY-LED MODEL REPLACES “ANTIQUATED” TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM

Mr. Davis told the Gold Coast Bulletin that the traditional model was “antiquated” and should be restructured to keep pace with the times.

“The intellectual prowess of the person in front is actually not necessarily going to lead to a consistent outcome.”

“We have to get to a more personalised approach.”

“If the teacher is the font of all knowledge, then you’re dependent on that one person.”

“If we bring technology in, we now have the world there.”

BENEFITS OF A ‘DUAL SHIFT’ SCHOOL

Mr. Davis said the objective was to deliver quality independent education at a price ordinary families can afford?

“By putting two classes in the same room, but at different times, you end up creating a financial model which can actually work.”

He explained that for families, the flexibility and lifestyle factors were driving enrolment interest.

“WE’RE GOING TO GIVE FAMILIES HALF THE DAY”

“A lot of the mums want to spend more time with their children, so here we’ve got the best of both worlds.”

“We’re saying we’re going to condense the day a little bit – still doing all the curriculum, still doing all the requirements, but we’re going to give you half the day so that you can actually spend it with your children.”

“You can get your kids up early, go down the beach and then drop them off to school at say 11am.”

BENEFITS FOR TEACHERS

There are also benefits for teachers.

“We can start thinking about part-time work. You can get what now is a full-time salary (as a teacher) in three days,” said Mr. Davis.

“We believe through using AI to mark rolls and do student correction, it will enable the workload to not increase.”

“AI HAS CREATED A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF OPPORTUNITY” 

He said, at Hillcrest, artificial intelligence was already embedded across the school, with 78% of teachers integrating it into every lesson – from lesson planning and student correction to generating diagrams and graphs.

“AI has created a whole new world of opportunity.”