In a new special report ERO has raised serious concerns with the Gloriavale Christian School, issuing a raft of things to fix if it is to retain its registration as a private school.
It has just released its report on the Year 1 to 13 Gloriavale Christian School.
It said recent court cases including findings about young people's employment status, and staffing, had seriously impacted the school since the previous ERO review in 2020.
In the past three years there had been several changes in leadership and staff. Gloriavale had also ceased to provide secondary schooling beyond Year 10 (Form 3).
This led the Chief Review Officer's decision to undertake the Special Review, which has a wider scope, looking specifically at the quality of education provision and the support for all school-aged children at Gloriavale.
When ERO staff visited the site community leaders declined to provide a definite number of school-aged children or a full overview of the educational provision for every school-aged learner in the community. Instead, the school leadership stated the choice of education provision is up to the parents.
There are 139 students enrolled but almost 20% of them did not attend the school premises and school management has limited oversight of education provision across the community.
At the time of the review a further 42 students were being homeschooled.
The provision of high-quality education was inconsistent and uncertain, ERO said.
"Community leaders are aware of the issues … but have no planned, documented, long term approach.
"Schooling is in a precarious situation."
ERO was not assured that all children up to the age of 16 were progressing, or that their health and safety was sufficiently well monitored.
ERO has determined the Gloriavale Christian School "does not meet many of the criteria for registration as a private school".
Since mid-2022 there had been three principals over 18 months, and only two staff had primary or secondary school teaching qualifications and relevant experience.
"It is not able to provide any tuition suitable beyond Year 10, and the standard of the tuition given to the students is lower than that given to students enrolled at state schools of the same year levels."
Teachers had a limited capability in managing challenging behaviour or understanding and catering for children with differing needs.
In order to meet the criteria for registration as a private school, Gloriavale needs to urgently seek assessment by the Ministry of Education that all school managers under current registration are fit and proper persons.
It also must develop a coherent, cohesive student-centred curriculum; ensure parents receive regular written reports; and with urgency, build staff capability to monitor student wellbeing and manage challenging behaviour.
ERO also said the Gloriavale leaders must ensure that the school meets its requirements for registration as a private school, and urgently develop a long-term strategic plan for educational provision across the community. Schooling within the community now encompasses not only the classroom, but also study through Te Kura, and home-schooling for students approved for exemption from attending a registered school by the Ministry of Education.
ERO was provided a full list of home-schooling families and independently chose a sample of three large families, to visit and interview. Those families had been home-schooling for up to five months.
The three gave genuine reasons to homeschool their children and had clear goals and objectives for learning through a variety of appropriate curriculum pathways.
All children were engaged in a range of learning tasks and activities.
At the time of the ERO Special Review, there was no provision for early childhood learning in the community. Since then, an early childhood service has been relicensed.
ERO will review the school again in 12 months.
