Central City Secondary Learning Community Cluster

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This learning community cluster includes two state secondary schools.

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 Central City Secondary Learning Community Cluster includes Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti which is a special character school. The school is temporarily located at Halswell as a consequence of the February 2012 earthquakes.

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 on the Education Counts website.

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

Central City secondary cluster ERO review cycle

Hagley Community College 4-5 years
Catholic Cathedral College 3 years

School roll changes

Total cluster March roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Total cluster March roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the secondary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 1858 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined secondary roll in this cluster has declined by 142 to 1716 at March 2012.

Individual school March rolls, 2008, 2010, and 2012:

Central City Secondary Cluster - Individual school rolls: 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Central City Secondary Cluster – Individual school rolls: 2008, 2010 and 2012

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

Central City Secondary Cluster: Ethnic composition.

Central City Secondary Cluster: Ethnic composition

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 Christchurch Central City 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 272 352 624 35 23 58 9 9 18
2010 266 376 642 39 36 75 2 7 9

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

Special Education

Special Education delivers specialist services and support to learners with special education needs across this cluster. This includes support to schools, teachers, parents, families and whānau.

In addition, Van Asch Deaf Education Centre provides on-site support at Hagley Community College with a classroom (satellite provision) for Deaf and hearing impaired learners.

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 108 secondary learners across the schools in this cluster.

Land – State schools only

School sites sit outside the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) land classification process andwill 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 are unlikely to 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 80 teaching spaces included in the 9,644 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 34 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 nine of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 12 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
Hagley Community College 34 34 9 12 3
Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Cluster 34 34 9 12 3

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 71 teaching spaces will be required for ongoing teaching and learning in this cluster, as below. This excludes space required at the special character school Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti.

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
Hagley Community College 1453 80 1312 71
Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti 405 n/a 404 n/a
Cluster 1858 80 1716 71

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. Five buildings are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 29 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 City Central 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

The Ministry of Education will formally consult with this cluster and its community on the possible shape of future education provision.

This will include providing detailed information on the issues and options affecting the cluster for community consideration.

In line with the support signalled in the Education Renewal Recovery Programme (link to document) 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.

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