Sign In / Register
Local principals are crying out for government funding with predicted growth pushing classroom and teaching resources to the limit.
Wellsford School has 383 students, 27 more than forecasted, and is set to finish the year with 420 pupils, the highest in the past decade.
Principal Dave Bradley says the school is already at capacity and he has concerns about how to cater for mid-year enrolments.
“The Ministry (of Education) believes we have a surplus of classrooms, but the extra building needs repairs and is not suitable for students,” Mr Bradley says.
“I have been in touch with the Ministry to look at installing a prefabricated room, but I understand that relocating a new building on site could take 12 to 18 months.”
Mr Bradley is also concerned about the school catering for roll growth in the long term, after finding out this month that a 100-house development is being built opposite the school over the next four years.
“It will be a mix of two, three and four bedroom affordable homes, which will likely be occupied by families.
“This means we could be taking on 150 more children in that time, which would require between five and six new classrooms.”
The increase in students is also affecting transport, with a new bus travelling from Mangawhai to Rodney College set to pick up the overflow of Wellsford pupils on its route.
High schools are also feeling the pressure with Mahurangi College building upwards and looking to free up more land for a junior block in future.
The school started this year with a record enrolment of 1414 students.
College principal David Macleod says growth is inevitable and they hope to get a plan in place with the Ministry before it hits.
“We are set to go to two storeys with our A Block, as we did with B Block,” Mr Macleod says.
“We also have some land at the back of the school that we are hoping to develop into a block for Years 7 to 9, but it’s a slow process.”
The Ministry’s deputy secretary sector enablement and support, Katrina Casey, says the Ministry is prioritising Warkworth for roll growth support.
“We have plans in place to increase classroom capacity at Warkworth School and Mahurangi College,” Ms Casey says.
“Last year the government invested $152 million in roll growth classrooms to support demand in high growth areas.”
The Ministry has not outlined any specific funding for Wellsford School in response to growth.
The spike in student numbers at Mahurangi College led to the recruitment of three extra teachers this year, although they were difficult to source.
“We got there just in time and for the first time ever the school was forced to pay a recruitment agency to find all three new staff members,” Mr Macleod says.
Ms Casey says in December the Government put $9.5 million into addressing teacher supply issues.
“We are also funding 35 extra places in the Teach First NZ programme costing $2 million.”
Mahurangi College is also likely to need an extra bus to Snells Beach this year.
“This will be an ongoing issue with around 75 per cent of our pupils using buses as transport to school.”
Rodney College has experienced a small rise in student numbers this year, to a five-year high of 390 students.
College principal Irene Symes says although the increase is minimal, it is at the Year 9 level, which indicates a wave of growth coming through from the lower grades.
“We will definitely need more teachers next year and although we haven’t had problems in the past getting staff it’s becoming harder,” Ms Symes says.
She says the school has space to accommodate new classrooms, but this is unlikely to happen for a number of years.
Otamatea High School has also experienced an increase in roll size to 414 students, up from 386 last year.
Principal Rachel Clothier-Simmonds says the growth is due to more families moving into the area, but the school is adequately resourced to handle the increase at present.
Warkworth Primary School was unavailable for comment.
