Schools

An educational healthy-relationship programme inspired by the death of Dunedin woman Sophie Elliott is to be offered to all New Zealand schools in the coming weeks.

Dunedin teachers are facing a confusing end to the financial year because of pay errors caused by Novopay.

The fall in international fee-paying (IFP) pupil numbers in Otago schools appears to be reversing, alleviating fears schools could suffer financial difficulty.

Every year, Class Act award winners are encouraged to go out into the world and fulfil their ambitions.

Three Dunedin boys were two points shy of a perfect quiz score last night.

Whille Dunedin schools have noted a decline in the number of pupils absent with influenza this year, a senior doctor is warning families not to be complacent.

Pressure on the Ministry of Education to operate in a ''constrained fiscal environment'' appears to have abated in the past year.

Burglaries of Dunedin schools have almost doubled in the past year, prompting police and Neighbourhood Support to provide strategies for keeping schools secure during holidays.

Despite the generally "clean" image of New Zealand's primary, intermediate and secondary education sector, an Office of the Auditor-general survey into fraud has found 8% of respondents were aware of at least one incident of fraud or corruption in their school within the past two years.

Dunedin schools have lost 1437 pupils in the past nine years - the equivalent of 53 classrooms full of children - and Statistics New Zealand demographers are predicting the decline will continue.

The Government launched a "sneak attack" on technology teachers in the Budget, inflicting a "huge blow" on the nation's intermediate sector, Tahuna Normal Intermediate principal Tony Hunter says.

During tough fiscal times, New Zealand schools appear to be refining their budgets by hiring increasing numbers of teachers on short-term contracts.