Whangārei's Te Kāpehu Whetū applies to become designated character school

The chief executive of a trust operating a Northland partnership school fears Māori academic achievement will drop when it transitions to a new state model.

Raewyn Tipene, chief executive of He Puna Marama Trust, said Whangārei's Te Kāpehu Whetū, which encompasses a primary school and a composite senior school (Years 7 to 13), has applied "under duress" to become a designated character school after Education Minister Chris Hipkins launched the Education Amendment Bill in February to formally end partnership schools, also known as charter schools.

Existing charter schools had until May 1 to submit an application to transition to a state school or designated character schools - which are state schools with a special character that set it apart from ordinary state schools.

"To our students on a day-to-day basis when they come in, it won't look much different. But behind the scenes how it's funded, how it's resourced, those things will change and our ability to influence innovation will be reduced. The consequence of this is reduced Māori educational achievement," Tipene said.

NZQA roll based results - which capture all students on the roll for each year level, whether they participated in NCEA or not - show 64.3 per cent of students at Te Kāpehu Whetū achieved University Entrance (UE). This was the second highest in Northland behind Pompallier College which had 87.8 per cent of students gaining UE.

To achieve UE students must achieve NCEA level 3, 14 credits in three approved subjects, 10 literacy credits and 10 numeracy credits.

"Here we have an example of our kura outperforming some of the older, more established schools in the region ... That's an indicator that what we're doing here is successful," Tipene said.

Hipkins said the primary difference with the state school system and partnership school model is that in the state system, schools must employ registered teachers and must follow the New Zealand curriculum.

Tipene said it is not clear how exactly the change will impact Te Kāpehu Whetū but said the biggest difference will be the loss of flexibility.

She said the trust won't be able to act as the school's Board of Trustees and therefore Te Kāpehu Whetū will lose access to the trust's many resources - including funding.

"There will be people missing who [the students] are used to having here, who do a lot of other work. We won't be able to go on as many trips as we've done in the past, we won't be able to do a lot of the exciting things that we do here because the funding will reduce and our flexibilities will change."

There is also a chance the school's Leadership Academy of A Company could end, as the kura won't be able to keep as many staff who are not qualified teachers.

Tipene said the academy is about building strong, ethical character and the boys involved spend time learning about integrity and what it looks like. They still attend normal classes and the only identifying factor is their uniform.

"The funding is geared towards qualified staff when really our success is having a whole lot more support staff to do the things the kids really love, not just the book work."