This learning community cluster includes one state composite school.

• Akaroa Area School – http://akaroa.school.nz

School governance

Akaroa Area School, while Government funded, is managed by a board of trustees.

Day to day management of the school is the responsibility of the principal.

The Crown is responsible for property provision to ensure students have access to their closest 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 on Find a achool on the Education Counts website.

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

Akaroa secondary cluster ERO review cycle

Akaroa Area School

3 years

School roll changes

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the secondary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 131 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the secondary roll in this cluster has increased by 11 to 142 at March 2012.

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

Education achievement

National Certificate in Education Achievement (NCEA) is the main secondary school qualification for students in years 11-13. NCEA can be gained at three levels – usually level 1 in Year 11, level 2 in Year 12, and level 3 in Year 13.

Any student who demonstrates the required skills and knowledge to the level of a particular standard, achieves NCEA credits. Each student receives a School Results Summary that presents all standards taken throughout their school years, and the results for each.

Since NCEA was introduced, more students are leaving school with qualifications.

The National priority is that 85% of all school learners will have achieved NCEA Level 2 by the time they leave school.

This table shows the numbers of school leavers in the Akaroa secondary cluster who gained NCEA level 2 before leaving school.

	Total school leavers			Māori			Pasifika
Year	Number below L2	NCEA L2 and above number	Total no. of leavers	Number below L2	NCEA L2 and above number	Total no. of leavers	Number below L2	NCEA L2 and above number	Total no. of leavers
2009	2	8	10	0	1	1	0	0	0
2010	1	5	6	1	0	1	0	0	0

Note: 2011/12 data is live and cannot be released.

Special Education

Special Education delivers specialist services and support to learners with special education at Akaroa Area School. This includes support to the school, 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.

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 1905 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 11 actual buildings.

All of these buildings have suffered damage during the earthquakes. Repairs have been made to the building stock.

Condition assessments confirm over time earthquake strengthening will be required across three of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in one building.

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
Akaroa Secondary	11	3	3	1	0
Cluster	11	3	3	1	0

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 12 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
Akaroa Secondary	131	11	142	12
Cluster	131	11	142	12

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. One is not considered cost effective to repair. This includes one teaching space.

Future planning

The earthquakes provide an opportunity, as outlined in the Education Renewal Recovery Programme, 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 Secondary 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.