Update: Decision announced for Phillipstown and Woolston School – April 2014

On 09 April 2014, Education Minister Hekia Parata announced her decision on the proposed merger of Phillipstown School and Woolston School.

Media Statement

Phillipstown and Woolston Schools to merge

END

Update: Decisions announced for secondary schools – October 2013

On 16 October 2013, Minister of Education Hon Hekia Parata announced decisions for secondary schools as part of the Government’s education renewal plans for Christchurch.

In summary the decisions are:

• the existing secondary school network will be retained and there will be no closures or mergers (apart from Aranui High School, previously announced as part of the Aranui campus decision and Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti School which is merging with Discovery One School)
• two schools – Avonside Girls High School and Shirley Boys High School – will be relocated and rebuilt
• support for the secondary school principals’ vision to raise achievement across greater Christchurch secondary schools
• more than $400 million will be invested to support secondary school education renewal.

Further information about these decisions is available in the fact sheet and in the information pack published on this page.

Decisions announced for Aranui and New Brighton schools – September 2013

On 11 September 2013, Minister of Education Hon Hekia Parata announced final decisions for five schools in Aranui and three schools in New Brighton as part of the Government’s education renewal plans for Christchurch.

The final decisions announced for Aranui and New Brighton schools represent a significant milestone as this means, after extensive consultation, all 38 schools have now received final decisions, including two schools that closed voluntarily.

In summary:

• 14 schools received decisions to stay open on their current sites
• 11 schools received decisions to merge, which will create five merged schools
• 11 schools received decisions to close
• Two schools chose to voluntarily close

The final decisions for the Aranui and New Brighton schools are outlined below.

Aranui

As per the interim decision announced on 22 May 2013, a new community campus will be established on the current Aranui High School site with year 1-13 schooling, and will open at the start of term one 2017. This means Aranui High, Aranui School, Avondale School and Wainoni School will close on 27 January 2017. Chisnallwood Intermediate will remain open on its current site, subject to a review in 2020.

Further consultation on the community campus will begin after the announcement. The Aranui Community Leadership Group (ACLG) will be established to lead the consultation, with the support of the Ministry of Education and the education community.

The ACLG will be made up of members of the local community. Applications will be open from 12 to 27 September. Visit the advertised appointments page to read more and download your application form from 12 September.

New Brighton

After further consultation and submissions from affected schools on the proposals outlined below, the final decision is that Central New Brighton, Freeville and North New Brighton Schools will merge at the start of term one 2015, initially on the Freeville and North New Brighton sites, and from 2016 on the North New Brighton site.

The current North New Brighton site will be significantly redeveloped to provide a modern learning environment, including new teaching spaces that reflect the latest thinking in school design.

Decisions announced for 19 schools – May 2013

On 29 May, Minister of Education Hon Hekia Parata announced decisions for 19 schools in greater Christchurch affected by the Government’s education renewal plans.

The final decisions are:

1. Glenmoor School, Greenpark School, Kendal School and Richmond School will close in January 2014
2. Branston Intermediate, Linwood Intermediate and Manning Intermediate will close in January 2014 and three nearby secondary schools, Hornby High School, Linwood College and Hillmorton High School, will provide year 7-13 schooling
3. Burwood School will merge with Windsor School and Phillipstown School will merge with Woolston School in January 2014
4. Lyttelton Main School and Lyttelton West School will merge at the later date of 5 May 2014 initially on the Lyttelton West and St Joseph sites, and then permanently on the Lyttelton Main site when the new school is complete
5. Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Whānau Tahi and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Waitaha will not merge and will be retained on their current sites
6. Central New Brighton will not merge with South New Brighton, and South New Brighton will remain open as a separate school on its current site. At this time the decision to merge Freeville and North New Brighton Schools will be deferred.

Central New Brighton, and the other two remaining schools, North New Brighton and Freeville, are now subject to two new proposals that will be consulted on concurrently.

The new proposals are to either merge Central New Brighton, Freeville School and North New Brighton School on the North New Brighton site, or to close Central New Brighton and finalise the interim decision to merge Freeville and North New Brighton.

Boards have until 10 July to provide feedback on these two proposals, and following the final decision on one of the proposals, it will be effective in May 2014.

The Education Renewal work is part of the Government’s plan to invest $1 billion in Christchurch to build the best schooling network in the country.

Decisions announced for 12 schools – March 2013

On 27 March 2013, Minister of Education Hon Hekia Parata announced final decisions for 12 schools in greater Christchurch affected by the Government’s Education Renewal Plans.  The Boards of these 12 schools have accepted their interim decisions.

The final decisions were:

• Burnham Primary School, Burnside Primary School, Duvauchelle School, Okains Bay School, Ouruhia Model School and Shirley Intermediate will remain open.
• Bromley School and Linwood Avenue schools, and Yaldhurst Model and Gilberthorpe schools will no longer be merged.
• Discovery One School and Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti schools will merge as a Year 1-13 designated character school effective from 27 January 2014