Education – Striving to fill gaps

Daily across the Coast, school gates open to more than just students. Social workers arrive to meet vulnerable students and whānau. Health nurses tend student wellness hubs. Youth workers check timetables to connect with rangatahi in need. And teachers? They do what they’ve always done, greet our young people with care, creativity, and a quiet determination to make each day matter.

It’s a powerful image, schools not just as centres of learning, but as the beating heart of our communities. Yet many of these services operate on a shoestring. They exist not because they are funded by the government, but because they are needed, and schools have stepped up to fill the gaps.

Recently, some schools received funding for extra classrooms, but many others, particularly here on the Hibiscus Coast, are bursting at the seams. Rolls are growing, the complexity of young people’s needs is increasing, and the expectations on schools have never been higher.

At the same time, our core funding from multiple governments simply hasn’t kept pace. For many schools, the difference between what it costs to operate effectively and what the ministry provides is not just a shortfall, it’s a chasm.

What fills that gap? You do. Our communities. Our parents. Local trusts and generous donors. And increasingly, school boards who are forced to make difficult decisions about whether to cut services or subsidise them through donations, hiring freezes, or deferring property upgrades.

Full-time nurses, youth workers, wellbeing programmes, learning support assistants, deans with dedicated time to check in with students, are essential to helping youth succeed. They’re the safety net and the launchpad. They reduce harm, build trust, and give kids a fair shot.

Schools now routinely serve as hubs for agencies like Oranga Tamariki, community law, counselling services, and advocates for families in crisis. We do this willingly because our young people deserve wraparound support. But we’re doing it on top of, and often instead of, the core business of education.

Despite all this, our educators and support staff remain unshakable. You’ll find them running holiday programmes, coaching sports teams, leading cultural groups, or quietly buying lunch for a hungry student. Not because it’s in the job description, but because it’s the right thing to do.

But goodwill isn’t a funding model, and while schools always strive to put kids first, we can’t keep doing more with less.

So, we ask our community to stand with us, whether through school donations, joining a board, supporting a fundraiser, or simply thanking a teacher, it all helps.

Our schools are places of hope. They’re places where dreams begin, where resilience is built, and where young people learn what it means to care for each other. But to keep being that for every learner, we need our whole village behind us. Because putting kids first shouldn’t be the hardest thing to do. It should be the most supported.