This learning community cluster includes two state primary schools, one state intermediate school, two state secondary schools, two state integrated schools, one independent school and 14 early childhood education providers.

 

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Schooling

1. Ilam School
2. Wharenui School
3. Kirkwood Intermediate
4. Christchurch Boys’ High School
5. Christchurch Girls’ High School
6. St Teresa’s School
7. Middleton Grange School
8. Medbury Preparatory School

Early childhood education (ECE)

There are 623 licence spaces across the early childhood education (ECE) providers in this cluster, including 188 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 622 children were enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 122 were under two. Of the 160 new entrants who enrolled at a school in the Riccarton Cluster in the year to March 2012, 154 (96%) had attended an ECE service. All but one of the 14 Māori new entrants and all 12 Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

Services

1. Kidsfirst Kindergarten McKenzie
2. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Riccarton
3. Avonhead Playcentre
4. ABC Mona Vale
5. ABC Riccarton
6. Early Childhood Learning Centre
7. Edukids Kilmarnock
8. Ilam Early Learning Centre
9. Kindercare Learning Centre (201)
10. Kindercare Learning Centre (206)
11. Kindercare Learning Centre (215)
12. Montana Ave Early Learning Centre
13. Montessori @ Mona Vale
14. Sheila Walker Unit

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 Riccarton cluster includes two state integrated and one independent 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.

Riccarton cluster ERO review cycle

Ilam School	3 years
Wharenui School	1-2 years
Kirkwood Intermediate	3 years
Christchurch Boys’ High School	In progress
Christchurch Girls’ High School	Under Review
St Teresa’s School (Riccarton)	In progress
Middleton Grange School	In progress
Medbury Preparatory School	3 years

School roll changes

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 1467 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 40 to 1427 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. In addition, Van Asch Deaf Education Centre provides on-site support at Wharenui School with two classrooms (satellite provision) for Deaf and hearing impaired learners.

Māori and Pasifika provision

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 122 primary and 24 secondary learners across the schools in this cluster.

Technology

Technology provision in this cluster is located at Middleton Grange School and Kirkwood Intermediate.

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 TC1and TC2. 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 50 teaching spaces included in the 5,531 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 41 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 17 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further nine 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
Ilam School	20	20	4	9	2
Kirkwood Intermediate	16	16	8	0	0
Wharenui	5	5	5	0	0
Cluster	41	41	17	9	2

Based on March 2012 rolls a minimum of 41 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
Ilam School	468	23	410	17
Kirkwood Intermediate	306	20	349	18
Wharenui	145	7	148	6
Cluster	919	50	907	41

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. Four are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 12 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 Riccarton 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

There will be conversations with boards of trustees to establish how schools in this cluster can deliver improved outcomes for their education communities as well as restore services. 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.

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.