This cluster includes four state primary schools, one state intermediate school, one state secondary school, two state integrated schools, one independent school, one specialist facility (Kingslea School) and 14 early childhood providers.

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education has announced final decisions for Shirley Intermediate to remain open and for Richmond School to close.

Hammersley Park School has selected voluntary closure and is closed.

Shirley Intermediate accepted their interim decision and received a final decision from the Minister in March 2013.
The Minister announced a final decision for Richmond School to close in May 2013.

The Ministry will work closely with Richmond School 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 Banks Ave School and Shirley 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 St Albans School in the St Albans Learning Community Cluster. This means students enrolled at Richmond School when the final decision to close was announced in May 2013 may be enrolled at St Albans School.

Supporting information for final decisions

• Richmond School education report [PDF; 14.8mb]
• Shirley Intermediate Education Reports [PDF; 15.8mb]
• Addendum to the Education Report –  Shirley Intermediate School [PDF; 1.3mb]
• Shirley Intermediate Submissions [PDF; 26.6mb]

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

View supporting information for 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.

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Schooling

1. Banks Avenue School
2. Hammersley Park School
3. Richmond School
4. Shirley School
5. Shirley Intermediate
6. Shirley Boys’ High School
7. St Paul’s School
8. Jean Seabrook Memorial School
9. Kingslea School

Early childhood education (ECE)

There are 550 licence spaces across the early childhood education providers in this cluster, including 135 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 619 children enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 116 were under two. 150 of the 154 new entrant students who enrolled at a school in the Shirley Cluster in the year to March 2012 had attended an ECE service. Twenty four of the 26 Māori new entrant students  and 11 of the 13 Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

Services

1. Kidsfirst Kindergarten MacFarlane Park
2. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Richmond
3. Kidsfirst Kindergarten Shirley
4. Shirley Playcentre
5. ABC St Albans
6. Alpha Early Childhood Educational Centre
7. Barnardos Early Learning Centre Richmond
8. Casa dei Bambini Foundation School
9. Educational Child Care Centre
10. Edukids Marshlands
11. Edukids Shirley Rd
12. Kindercare Learning Centre (202)
13. Learning Curves Montessori Nursery
14. Shirley First Learners

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 Shirley cluster includes one state integrated school and an independent school. Kingslea School based at Te Oranga is a special 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 school.

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

Shirley cluster ERO review cycle

Banks Avenue School	In progress
Hammersley Park School	In progress
Richmond School (Christchurch)	1 year
Shirley School	3 years
Shirley Intermediate	3 years
Shirley Boys’ High School	Under Review
St Paul’s School (Dallington)	3 years
Marian College (Pre-Quake)	4-5 years
Jean Seabrook Memorial School	3 years
Kingslea School	In progress

School roll changes

 

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 1568 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 413 to 1155 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, Ferndale School provides on-site support at Hammersley Park School with two classrooms (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.

 Māori immersion provision in this cluster is delivered at Shirley Intermediate School. 

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision

ESOL provision for refugee and new migrant learners from non-English speaking backgrounds is provided to 66 primary and nine secondary learners in this cluster.

Technology

Technology provision in this cluster is located at Shirley Intermediate School.

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, 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 may be required at a later date, should any of these sites be further developed.

Buildings – State schools only

There are 77 teaching spaces included in the 9,441 square metres (of useable space) of teaching and learning and administration space across this cluster of state schooling provision =. The teaching, learning and administrative space is incorporated into 57 actual buildingsAll 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 16 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 11 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
Banks Avenue	17	17	3	4	0
Hammersley Park	11	11	4	1	0
Richmond School	7	7	3	1	0
Shirley Intermediate	11	11	5	0	0
Shirley Primary	11	11	1	5	0
Cluster	57	57	16	11	0

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 40 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
Banks Avenue	556	26	387	15
Hammersley Park	100	14	49	2
Richmond School	71	8	38	2
Shirley Intermediate	311	18	222	12
Shirley Primary	227	11	230	9
Cluster	1265	77	926	40

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.  Eight are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 26 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 Shirley 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 this cluster for community consideration. 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.