Christchurch’s Marylands Street and Marylands Park no longer exist. A renaming ceremony on Thursday saw a new street sign unveiled, Validation Place – and a new park sign, Validation Park. In time, no-one will know Marylands Catholic residential school for boys (which St John of God brothers ran from 1955 to 1984) ever existed. Marylands Read more
Two Auckland schools that didn’t know if they would be allowed to open next year have been given a reprieve. Middle School West Auckland and South Auckland Middle School, which are both charter schools, were left in the dark about whether they’d be granted ‘special character’ status to remain open, after the deadline for a Read more
Six of the 11 charter (partnership) schools have a Māori roll of 87 percent or higher. High-profile Māori leader Lance O’Sullivan says self-serving interests and protectionism from the old establishment are at the heart of the move to close them down. He says such a move will force Māori youth back into a state system Read more
A former student of Mount Hobson Middle School, a partnership (charter) school, claims that his science teacher Rachel O’Connor favoured creationism as an explanation for how the world began. Rachel O’Connor is the sister of National Party leader Simon Bridges and wife of National MP Simon O’Connor. This news item appeared on Newsroom two days after the opposition Read more
The closure of charter schools risks the spiritual impoverishment that New Zealand’s education system had historically imposed on Māori, a select committee has heard. Māori educator Sir Toby Curtis, who recently submitted a treaty claim against the closures, delivered an “emotional” plea for the schools to remain as is on Wednesday morning. Continue reading
Two Māori education leaders have lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal saying the government’s decision to axe charter schools will have a detrimental effect on Māori students. Continue reading
Destiny Church will make a controversial fresh bid to open a charter school. Ministry of Education bosses previously rejected an application from the church, amid concerns students would be pressured into joining the Brian Tamaki-led movement. Papers detailing the rejection revealed ministry reservations over Destiny’s belief that identity as God’s child was more important than Read more
Education Ministry figures show the communities around low-decile schools are poorer than ever but better educated. School deciles are based on five indicators – parents with no qualifications, crowded households, household income, parents receiving income support, and parents with low-skilled occupations. Decile one schools are the 10 percent of schools with the most students from Read more
A trust that owns two charter schools has bought its students a $100,000 waka to help with their learning. He Puna Marama, which received $6 million of government funding for its two Whangarei schools over two years, but also gets revenue from elsewhere, says it bought the 22-person, 14m carved kauri waka with money specially Read more
James Haggett the principal of a new charter school, Middle School West Auckland, resigned on February 3 – the students’ first day – after it surfaced he was dealing with a probe by the Teachers Council regarding the administration of examination entries from 2013. A mandatory report was laid in December by Haggett’s former employer, Read more