Parklands Learning Community Cluster

Posted on: No Comments

This learning community cluster includes five state primary schools and 14 early childhood education providers.

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education has announced a final decision to merge Burwood School with Windsor School.

The Ministry will work closely with the schools to provide extensive support throughout the implementation of this 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 schemes at Burwood School and Windsor School or visit nzschools.tki.org.nz for more information on your local schooling options.

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. Burwood School
  2. Windsor School
  3. Marshland School
  4. Parkview School
  5. Queenspark School

Early childhood education (ECE)

There are 575 licence spaces across the early childhood education (ECE) providers in this cluster, including 173 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 835 children were enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 168 were under two. Of the 298 new entrant students who enrolled at a school in the Parklands Cluster in the year to March 2012, 289 (97%) had attended an ECE service. All but one of the  32 Maori new entrant students, and all but one of the nine Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

Services

  1. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Parklands
  2. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Queenspark 
  3. Burwood Playcentre
  4. Parklands Playcentre
  5. ABC Parklands
  6. ABC Tumara Park
  7. ABC Tumara Park 2
  8. Kindercare Learning Centre (208)
  9. Lake Terrace Preschool and Nursery
  10. Little Explorers Preschool
  11. Marshlands Nest
  12. Ready Steady Babies
  13. Ready Steady Play Early Learning Centre
  14. The Champion Centre Tamariki Toiora

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 Parklands 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 on Find a school.

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

Parklands cluster ERO review cycle

Burwood School 3 years
Windsor School 3 years
Marshland School 3 years
Parkview School 3 years
Queenspark School

School roll changes

Image showing total Parklands 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 2027 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 189 to 1838 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 Parklands cluster – Individual schools roll: 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Parklands 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 Parklands cluster.

Parklands 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.

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 26 primary 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 andwill not be given any Technical Category foundation rankings, though the land in the surrounding residential area of this cluster has been classified TC1, TC2, TC3 and red zone.

Geotechnical assessments on the state school sites in this cluster indicate land issues are likely to compromise continued education provision.

Further Ministry commissioned assessments will be required at a later date, should any of these sites be further developed.

Buildings – State schools only

There are 93 teaching spaces included in the 10,819 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 94 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 13 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 35 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
Burwood 17 17 5 7 0
Marshland 15 15 3 7 1
Parkview 15 15 0 4 0
Queenspark 30 30 2 7 0
Windsor 17 17 3 10 0
Cluster 94 94 13 35 1

Based on March 2012 rolls a minimum of 76 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
Burwood 418 18 276 11
Marshland 194 9 195 8
Parkview 326 17 289 12
Queenspark 551 25 532 22
Windsor 538 24 546 23
Cluster 2027 93 1838 76

 

The way forward

Extensive condition assessments and engineering investigations have confirmed all buildings in this cluster 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.  Six 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 Parklands 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. 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.

Comments are closed.