Growing roll putting pressure on school

A Kaiapoi school hopes to get a decision on building projects this year as new enrolments put pressure on its roll.

Being next to a growing sub-division makes it difficult to plan ahead, says Kaiapoi North School principal Jason Miles.

The school has a site capacity for 540 students and ended last year with a roll of 528.

While 60 year 8s will start high school this year, Mr Miles said he has 25 new enrolments (including 16 new entrants) arriving on day one and another 50 new entrants enrolled to start during the year.

And he said those are just the ones he knows about.

‘‘It is hard to plan for because we don’t know what age children will be when families move into new sub-divisions.’’

He enrolled 95 new students throughout last year, including 65 new entrants.

The Beach Grove sub-division sits over the school’s back fence and is consented for around 650 sections in eight stages, with sections in stages six and seven now on the market.

Mr Miles said the Ministry of Education will review the school’s enrolments in the middle of the year.

‘‘We will go to them with our July 1 roll and pending enrolments and hope they will make a decision on a new building."

Kaiapoi North School is one of several North Canterbury schools awaiting decisions building projects, including Woodend School, Oxford Area School and Amuri Area School.

Work got under way last year on a building project to build six new classrooms and a hall at Te Kura o Tuahiwi.

Ministry of Education spokesperson Sandra Orr said the Ministry has been working with local school boards of trustees on options to address different schools’ needs.

Several North Canterbury school building projects were placed on hold earlier this year while the Ministry conducted a review of 352 projects in a bid to save $2 billion.

Since then the building project at Te Kura o Tuahiwi has got under way and a temporary solution has been found for Woodend School.

Projects at Kaiapoi North School, Oxford Area School and Amuri Area School will be reviewed after this year's Budget.

Ms Orr said the Ministry is focusing on delivering value for money.

Options included using standardised, offsite manufactured or modular classrooms.

■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.