Brighton Learning Community Cluster

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

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education announced the final decision in May 2013 not to proceed with the interim decision to merge Central New Brighton and South New Brighton Schools.

After further consultation on two new proposals announced in May for Central New Brighton, Freeville and North New Brighton schools, the Minister announced the final decision in September to merge Central New Brighton, Freeville and North New Brighton Schools at the start of term one 2015, initially on the Freeville and North New Brighton sites, and from 2016 on the North New Brighton site.

Special temporary enrolment schemes have been established in some areas so parents have certainty about where they can enrol their children if their school has a final decision to close or merge.

Read more about the special temporary enrolment scheme at Freeville School or visit nzschools.tki.org.nz for more information on your local schooling options.

The Ministry will work closely with the schools to provide extensive support throughout the transition to the merged school in 2015.

Supporting information for final decisions

Education report [PDF; 6.2MB]
Central New Brighton School submission [PDF; 4.4MB]
Freeville School submission [PDF; 2.1MB]
North New Brighton School submission [PDF; 1.5MB]
South New Brighton School submission [PDF; 7MB]

Documents are available in PDF format only. Accessible versions can be supplied on request from info@minedu.govt.nz

View supporting information on the decisions process on the interim decisions and final decisions pages.

The map below shows the current makeup of the learning community cluster.

Schooling

Early Childhood Education (ECE)

There are 354 licence spaces across the early childhood providers in this cluster, including 63 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 522 children were enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 75 were under two. All but one of the 192 new entrant students who enrolled at a school in the Brighton Cluster in the year to March 2012 had attended an ECE service. All but one of the 32 Maori new entrant students and all 5 of the Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

Services

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 Brighton cluster includes one state integrated and one independent 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.

Brighton cluster ERO review cycle

Central New Brighton School	Under Review
Freeville School	4-5 years
North New Brighton School	Under Review
South New Brighton School	Under Review
New Brighton Catholic School	Under Review
Nova Montessori School	3 years

School roll Changes

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 1427 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 219 to 1208 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 learners’ 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.

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. Māori bilingual provision in this cluster is delivered at Freeville School. There is no Pasifika language provision in this cluster.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision

ESOL provision for refugee and new migrant learners from non-english speaking backgrounds is provided to 3 primary learners across the schools in this cluster.

Technology

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

Land – State Schools 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 TC2, TC3 and Red zone. Geotechnical assessments on the state school sites in this cluster indicate land issues may 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 Schools Only

There are 57 teaching spaces included in the 7575 square metres (of useable space) of teaching and learning and administration space across this cluster of schooling provision. The teaching, learning and administrative space is incorporated into 72 actual buildings. All of these buildings suffered damage during the earthquakes. Repairs have yet to be made to the building stock. Condition assessments confirm over time earthquake strengthening will be required across 16 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 10 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
Central New Brighton	13	13	4	0	0
Freeville	10	10	3	4	1
North New Brighton	23	23	3	2	1
South New Brighton	26	26	6	4	1

Cluster	72	72	16	10	3

Based on March 2012 rolls a minimum of 43 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
Central New Brighton	168	10	124	5
Freeville	283	10	284	12
North New Brighton	250	15	207	8
South New Brighton	502	22	438	18

Cluster	1203	57	1053	43

The Way Forward

Extensive condition assessments and engineering investigations have confirmed all buildings in this cluster currently 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. 9 are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 18 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 Brighton 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 Schooling

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.

A separate discussion will also be held with state secondary schools around secondary provision going forward.