This learning community cluster includes three state primary schools, one state intermediate, one special school, two state integrated schools and 10 early childhood education providers.

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education has announced a final decision for Burnside Primary School to remain open, but to build an education hub and share facilities with neighbouring Cobham Intermediate.

Burnside Primary School accepted their interim decision and received a final decision from the Minister in 2013.

Supporting information for final decisions

• Burnside Primary School Education Report [PDF; 18.8mb]
• Burnside Primary School Submissions [PDF; 31.8mb]

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

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

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Schooling

1. Burnside Primary School
2. Fendalton Open Air School
3. Waimairi School
4. Cobham Intermediate
5. Allenvale Special School and Residential Centre
6. Christ the King School
7. St Patrick’s School

Early childhood education (ECE)

There are 404 licence spaces across the early childhood education (ECE) providers in this cluster, including 71 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 506 children were enrolled at ECE services in this cluster, of which 69 were under two. Of the 244 new entrant students who enrolled at a school in the Burnside Cluster in the year to March 2012, 240 (98%) had attended an ECE service.  Of the 24 Māori new entrant students, 24 (100%) had attended an ECE service, and eight (89%) of the nine Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

Services

1. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Papanui
2. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Pitcairn Crescent
3. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Trengrove
4. Fendalton Playcentre
5. ABC Papanui
6. angelCare preschool
7. Aratupu Preschool and Nursery
8. Cornerstone Christian Early Learning Centre
9. Elmwood Preschool Ltd
10. Lollipops Educare Blighs Road

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 Burnside cluster includes two state integrated schools.

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.

Burnside cluster ERO review cycle

Burnside Primary School	3 years
Fendalton Open Air School	3 years
Waimairi School	4-5 years
Cobham Intermediate	3 years
Allenvale Special School and Residential Centre	3 years
Christ the King School (Burnside)	Under Review
St Patrick’s School (Bryndwr)	3 years

School roll changes

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 2,416 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 209 to 2,207 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

Allenvale Special School and Resource Centre (day special school) is situated within this cluster, although students attend from a wider area. 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. Each of the schools in this cluster is also able to access Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) support for students in years 1-10 with learning and behaviour difficulties.

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. 

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision

ESOL provision for refugee and new migrant learners from non-english speaking backgrounds is provided to 99 primary learners across the schools in this cluster.

Technology

Technology provision in this cluster is located at Cobham Intermediate.

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. 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 schools only

There are 87 teaching spaces included in the 9989 square metres (net area, which is internal useable space) of teaching and learning and administration space across this cluster of schooling provision. The teaching, learning and administrative space is incorporated into 110 actual buildings. All of these buildings have 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 26 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 24 buildings.

Buildings 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
Burnside Primary	11	11	4	0	0
Cobham Intermediate	21	21	8	6	0
Fendalton Open Air	23	23	6	4	0
Waimari	16	16	1	7	1
Cluster	71	71	19	17	1

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 75 teaching spaces will be required for ongoing teaching and learning in this cluster.

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
Burnside Primary	289	12	198	8
Cobham Intermediate	715	32	671	31
Fendalton Open Air	477	22	449	18
Waimari	458	21	435	18
Cluster	1939	87	1753	7

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. Sixteen are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 33 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 Burnside 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.