Mairehau Learning Community Cluster

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

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education announced a final decision  in May 2013 to close Glenmoor School.

The Ministry will work closely with the school to provide extensive support throughout the implementation of the proposal.

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 Mairehau School  or visit nzschools.tki.org.nz for more information on your local schooling options.

A special temporary enrolment scheme has also been put in place for Paparoa Street School in the St Albans School community cluster. This means students enrolled at Glenmoor School when the final decision to close was announced in May 2013 may be enrolled at Paparoa Street School.

Supporting information for final decision

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

View supporting information on interim decisions for all schools in this learning community cluster on the interim decisions page.

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

Schooling

  1. Glenmoor School
  2. Mairehau School
  3. Mairehau High School
  4. Our Lady of Fatima School

Early childhood education (ECE)

There are 317 licence spaces across the early childhood education (ECE) providers in this cluster, including 76 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 430 children were enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 81 were under two. Of the 101 new entrant students who enrolled at a school in the Mairehau Cluster in the year to March 2012, 101 (100%) had attended an ECE service. Of the 12 Māori new entrant students, 12 (100%) had attended an ECE service, and 3 (100%) of the 3 Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

Services

  1. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Mairehau
  2. St Albans Playcentre
  3. Barnardos Early Learning Centre – Te Puna Oraka
  4. Dudley Creek Preschool Ltd
  5. Forfar Nursery and Preschool
  6. Mairehau First Learners
  7. Noku te Ao
  8. Small World Preschool and Nursery
  9. St Albans Community Preschool

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 Mairehau cluster includes one state integrated 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.

Mairehau cluster ERO review cycle

Glenmoor School 3 years
Mairehau School In progress
Mairehau High School In progress
Our Lady of Fatima School (Chch) 3 years

School roll changes

Image showing total Mairehau cluster March roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012.

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 631 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 1 to 630 at March 2012.

Individual school March rolls, 2008, 2010, and 2012

Note: only roll data for primary schools in this cluster is displayed.

Image showing Mairehau cluster – Individual schools roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Mairehau cluster – Individual schools roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012.

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

Image showing ethnic composition of Mairehau cluster.

Mairehau cluster: ethnic composition.

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. In addition, Ferndale School provides on-site support at Glenmoor School with a classroom (satellite provision) for learners with high and ongoing education needs.

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 32 primary and 11 secondary 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. 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 21 teaching spaces included in the 2,512 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 16 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 7 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further five 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
Glenmoor 3 3 2 0 0
Mairehau 13 13 5 5 2
Cluster 16 16 7 5 2

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 16 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
Glenmoor 43 5 40 2
Mairehau 345 16 341 14
Cluster 388 21 381 16

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 are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 17 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 Mairehau 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.

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