This learning community cluster includes 4 state primary schools, one state integrated school and one early childhood education providers.

 

Schooling

4 state primary schools, 1 state integrated secondary school and 9 early childhood education providers.

1. Avonhead School
2. Merrin School
3. Russley School
4. Westburn School
5. Villa Maria College

 

Early Childhood Education (ECE)

There are 474 licensed spaces across the early childhood providers in this cluster, including 76 for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 441 children were enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 63 were under two. 201 of the 205 new entrants who enrolled at a school in the Avonhead Learning Community Cluster in the year to March 2012 mhad attended an ECE service. All 10 Māori new entrant students and all 7 Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

 

Services

1. Kidsfirst Kindergartens Avonhead
2. Hawthornden Road and Ilam
3. Russley Playcentre
4. Annabels Educare Avonhead
5. Avonhead Montessori Preschool
6. Kindercare Learning Centres 211
7. Portobelo Avonhead
8. Te Ao Tamariki

ECE services are independently owned and managed.

 

School Governance

There are three types of schools: state, private (or registered or independent) and state integrated schools. (State integrated schools are former private schools which, while now “integrated” into the state system, also provide programmes around their particular religious or learning philosophy.) State and state integrated schools, while government funded, are managed by boards of trustees. Private schools receive only partial funding from the Government. Day to day management of ALL schools is the responsibility of the Principal. The Crown is responsible for property provision for state schools to ensure students have access to their closest school. The proprietors of state integrated and private schools are responsible for their own buildings. The Avonhead Learning Community Cluster includes a state integrated secondary school.

School boards are required to develop individual charters and annual plans and report their performance against these.You will be able to access the school charter from your school or at Find a school.

Education Review Office (ERO) reports on school and early childhood performance are publicly available.

 

Avonhead cluster ERO review cycle

Avonhead School	3 years
Merrin School	3 years
Russley School	4-5 years
Westburn School	3 years
Villa Maria College	In progress

 

School Roll Changes

 

 

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 1643 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 79 to 1564 at March 2012.

Individual School March Rolls, 2008, 2010, and 2012:

Note: only roll data for primary schools in this cluster is displayed.

 

 The following chart shows the ethnic composition of the combined cluster school rolls by percentage of total combined roll

 

 

Education Achievement

National Standards aim to lift achievement in literacy and numeracy (reading, writing, and mathematics) by being clear about what students should achieve and by when. Boards are required to report on learner’s achievement for 2011 in their 2012 Annual Report. You will be able to access National Standards data for your school from the Find a school section of the Education Counts website as soon as this information is available.

 

Special Education

Special Education delivers specialist services and support to learners with special education needs across this cluster. This includes support to early childhood education, schools, teachers, parents, families and whānau. In addition, Allenvale Special School and Resource Centre provides on-site support at Westburn School with a classroom (satellite provision) for learners with high and ongoing education needs. Allenvale Special School is also a Provider School for the itinerant Specialist Teacher Outreach Service and this is available to schools in the cluster for their learners on the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS). The Specialist Teacher Outreach Service provides an itinerant specialist teaching service for students on the ORS who are enrolled in their local schools.

 

Māori and Pasifika provision

Māori-medium education programmes involve students being taught either all or some curriculum subjects in the Māori language, either in immersion (Māori language only) or bilingual (Māori and English) programmes. There are no Māori or Pasifika bilingual units or language programmes delivered by schools in this cluster.

 

ESOL provision

ESOL provision for refugee and new migrant learners from non- english speaking backgrounds is provided in all schools in this cluster with 99 primary and three secondary learners accessing this.

 

Technology

There is no specific technology provision located in this cluster. Schools are likely to be accessing it in neighbouring clusters.

 

Land – State School Only

School sites sit outside the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) land classification  process and will not be given any Technical Category foundation rankings, though the land in the surrounding residential area of this cluster has been classified TC1. Geotechnical assessments on the state school sites in this cluster indicate land issues will not compromise continued education provision. Further ministry commissioned assessments may be required at a later date, should any of these sites be further developed.

 

Buildings – State School Only

There are 76 teaching spaces included in the 9377 square metres (of useable space) of teaching and learning and administration areas across this cluster of state schooling provision. The teaching, learning and administrative space is incorporated into 72 actual buildings. The majority of these buildings suffered damage during the earthquakes.  Repairs have yet to be made to the building stock. Condition assessments confirm earthquake strengthening will be required, over time, across 17 buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 16 buildings.

 

Building Condition Information – State Schools Only

	Number of buildings	Number of buildings with EQ damage	Number of buildings with strengthening required	Number of buildings with weather tightness repairs required	Number of   buildings with both strengthening and weather tightness repairs
Avonhead	19	19	4	4	0
Merrin	15	15	5	3	0
Russley	17	17	4	3	0
Westburn	21	21	4	6	0
Cluster	72	72	17	16	0

 

As below, based on March 2012 rolls a minimum of 64 teaching spaces will be required for ongoing teaching and learning in this cluster, as below.

School Rolls and Classroom Numbers – State Schools Only

March 2010 Roll

Classroom (No.) current (July 2012)

March 2012 Roll

Estimated classrooms required at March 2012

Avonhead	491	20	487	20
Merrin	328	18	289	11
Russley	413	19	361	15
Westburn	411	19	427	18
Cluster	1643	76	1564	64

 

The Way Forward

Extensive condition assessments and engineering investigations have confirmed all buildings in this cluster remain fit to occupy – unless already isolated. A number of the buildings across this cluster will, however, require remediation and strengthening over the longer-term.  18 are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 48 teaching spaces.

 

Future Planning

The earthquakes provide an opportunity, as outlined in the Education Renewal Recovery Programme [PDF; 881kb], to consider options for revitalising the greater Christchurch education network that go beyond simply replacing what was there. Discussions with schools, communities and providers within this cluster will be key to informing decisions around the future shape of education for the Avonhead education community. Ways to enhance infrastructure and address existing property issues, improve education outcomes, and consider future governance will form part of these discussions.

 

Community Engagement

Cluster support groups will be established to lead community engagement. The Ministry of Education will support these groups in providing information to their communities and gathering feedback to identify the preferred way forward. In line with the support signalled in the Education Renewal Recovery Programme [PDF; 881kb for improved collaboration, this will provide an opportunity to gain further suggestions around shared provision across schools and services within specific areas of interest and the wider community, as appropriate. Boards will formally consult with their communities where closures or mergers are indicated.

Check out the engagement schedule for further details.

 

Secondary Schools

Secondary, state integrated and independent schools located within these clusters will be involved in discussions around the future shape of provision within their education communities.

The Ministry has worked collaboratively with secondary schools on ideas for future secondary school education provision in greater Christchurch.  In October 2013, the Minister of Education announced decisions for the secondary school network.