Kids in cupboards

Children in a resource cupboard at Freemans Bay School.

Unexpected roll growth in Auckland’s inner city means schools are bulging at the seams – some literally.

Freemans Bay School was built on an old landfill, and the central block is sinking – walls are cracked and plastic film stops glass falling from windows. The building is checked monthly by engineers while a new $2 million, two-storey block is built.

In the first week of the third term, 28 new children turned up for class – 40 percent unknown to the school. Many are from immigrant families, living in apartment blocks, and haven’t attended any kind of pre-school.

‘We have three admin people working in a cupboard out in reception, it’s not great,’ says acting principal Sarah Gillanders.

The building project also takes a huge amount of her time. ‘You can’t just pick up the whole project and pass it over to the project manager – there’re meetings, correspondence, looking at other schools to see what would fit our school and philosophy. It takes you away from student learning.’

It’s a story echoed around the inner city. ‘It’s a nightmare,’ says Carolyn Marino, principal at Westmere School., whose roll has grown from 300 to 500. ‘Besides classrooms, the infrastructure changes. The community is fundraising for a hall, we need new admin offices and a bigger staffroom.

‘You’re jumping through hoops all the time. Ann Tolley has released more money for buildings, but there’s a lag of about two years from when you get approval for roll growth til you see the money.’ The situation has the Ministry of Education looking for new solutions. ‘The days of us going in and buying four or five hectares to build a school are not there. It would be hundreds of millions of dollars,’ says Auckland regional manager Bruce Adin.

New inner city schools may be a couple of floors leased in a commercial building, with green space being the nearest council park – as happens in big cities in Europe and Asia.

The challenges are only likely to increase – something like 14,000 more children than were expected were born in both 2007 and 2008. Bruce says much of the growth will be in Auckland, particularly Manukau, where more greenfield sites are available. One priority will be to ensure new schools have a site available for early childhhod, he says. ‘Just the site, we don’t necessarily build – that’s driven by the market [private providers] and the community.

‘The market perceives some local communities to more suitable than others so that presents some challenges.’

Box Breatkhrough

Maori students who must travel out-of-zone for immersion or bilingual te reo schooling will now attract property funding.

It’s a change of policy that‘s a huge relief for Hoana Pearson, principal at Newton Central School, where about a third of 300 pupils travel out-of-zone to attend immersion and bilingual classes. ‘It’s exciting - it’s a huge commitment of time and energy to support and sustain programmes that life Maori achievement – change had to happen.’

At the ministry, Bruce Adin say, ’As part of the commitment to raising Maori student achievement, it makes sense to provide accommodation.’

Newton Central had been turning down one to two Maori students seeking to enroll at the school, and that will change, although space on a small site is an issue.