This learning community cluster includes four state primary schools, one state composite school and three early childhood education providers.

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education announced final decisions for Duvauchelle School and Okains Bay School to remain open as separate entities but to look at ways to increase collaboration, including shared governance.

Duvauchelle School and Okains Bay School accepted their interim decisions and received a final decision from the Minister in March 2013.

Le Bons Bay School selected voluntary closure and is closed.

Supporting information for final decisions

• Consideration of Closure of Duvauchelle School and Okains Bay School [PDF; 17.3mb]
• Duvauchelle School Submissions [PDF; 26.4mb]
• Okains Bay School Submissions [PDF; 48.7mb]

Schooling

1. Duvauchelle School
2. Le Bons Bay School
3. Little River School
4. Okains Bay School
5. Akaroa Area School

Early childhood education (ECE)

There are 61 licensed spaces across the early childhood education(ECE) providers in this cluster, including 16 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 106 children were enrolled at ECE services in this cluster, 24 were under two.

Of the 24 new entrants who enrolled at a school in the Akaroa cluster in the year to March 2012, 23 (96%) had attended an ECE service.

All but one of the three Māori new entrant students had attended an ECE service. No Pasifika new entrants were enrolled in a school in this cluster.

Services

1. Banks Peninsula Plunket Community Preschool
2. Akaroa Playcentre
3. Little River Playcentre

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 and special character 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 Akaroa cluster does not include any 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.

Akaroa cluster ERO review cycle

Duvauchelle School	3 years
Le Bons Bay School	3 years
Little River School	3 years
Okains Bay School	3 years
Akaroa Area School	3 years

School roll changes

Total cluster March roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 269 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has increased by 7 to 276 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.

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 not provided in this cluster.

Technology

Technology provision in this cluster is located at Akaroa Area School.

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 Port Hills and Banks Peninsula. 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 11 teaching spaces included in the 1,256 square metres (of useable space) of teaching and learning and administration areas across this cluster of schooling provision. The teaching, learning and administrative space is incorporated into 29 actual buildings. Some of these buildings suffered damage during the earthquakes. Repairs have been made to the building stock. Condition assessments confirm over time earthquake strengthening will be required across seven buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further two 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
Duvauchelle	9	1	3	0	0
Le Bons Bay	5	2	1	0	0
Little River	8	6	2	2	0
Okains Bay	7	3	1	0	0
Cluster	29	12	7	2	0

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 8 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
Duvauchelle	28	3	26	2
Le Bons Bay	11	2	6	1
Little River	82	4	85	4
Okains Bay	17	2	17	1
Cluster	138	11	134	8

* For Akaroa Area School see Akaroa secondary learning cluster

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.

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 Akaroa 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. 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, however, also be held with all state secondary schools around secondary provision going forward.