KEY POINTS:
Hundreds of pupils on waiting lists to get into popular Auckland schools could miss out as late enrolments roll in, despite an anticipated drop in the number of students entering school.
A week before school starts, several Auckland secondary schools were dealing with unexpected influxes of pupils, often leaving parents wondering whether their children would make it off the waiting list.
Lynfield College is coping with a surge of pupils caused by the military coup in Fiji.
Principal Steve Bovaird said about 20 extra pupils so far enrolled had come from Fiji and he was dealing with immigration inquiries.
The school's ideal roll was 1800 and it had restrictions on the number of Year 9 students but it hoped to take about 130 pupils from out of the school zone who had brothers and sisters already at the school.
Other schools were holding places open for possible late enrolments rather than letting those on waiting lists in now. Avondale College principal Brent Lewis said he was leaving about 50 places open to accommodate late enrolments by children who had just moved into the zone, come from overseas, or had not bothered enrolling earlier.
"It can be rough on families on the waiting list, who desperately want to get in and who may have gone and bought a uniform to go somewhere else only to be let in at the last minute."
His school roll was likely to be about the same as last year - 2650 to 2700 - and the school was trying to whittle down a waiting list "in the hundreds" of out-of-zone pupils.
Of the 446 schools in the greater Auckland region, 198 have enrolment schemes which guarantee entry only to students who live within a zone area around the school. Other students can go on a waiting list and face a ballot to get in if the school roll is not full.
However, the waiting list was likely to be a fruitless wait for many.
At Macleans College in Howick, associate principal Simon Peek said the school would have a full roll of 2300 and there was little hope of a place for the 250 pupils on the waiting list who lived outside the school's zone.
Epsom Girls' Grammar principal Annette Sharp expected a roll of 1900, slightly more than last year.
"We are a zone school so people must produce evidence of living in the zone and that it's for long term," she said. "Our planning has incorporated most of the people who are coming in to the zone but there are restrictions on a few subjects where we feel the class is as big as we feel it is comfortable for them to be."
Auckland Grammar headmaster John Morris estimated a final roll of about 2450, slightly less than last year's 2520 and a relief for the school worried about the boom in its roll levels.
"The numbers of third formers coming from contributing schools are down because a blip in the population has now gone through. So we are getting back to a level that is more manageable. But at the moment, we have our biggest seventh form year ever."
Auckland Grammar's hardline stance on enrolment cheats last year appeared to have worked: Mr Morris said there were fewer attempts to buck the system, and of about 65 late enrolment applications to come in over the past 10 days, most were from valid in-zone students.
At the country's largest school, Rangitoto College, principal David Hodge said the roll was shaping up for 2910 regular students. Yesterday the school held its second and final ballot for out-of-zone places and Mr Hodge said most of those on the waiting list would by now have either been accepted or have found a place in another school.
He said the school was lucky that most people who intended to move into the zone had been anxious to secure enrolment and had already advised the school.
"Not leaving it to the last minute means they get a better choice of courses because the desired course could be filled.
"I believe there should be a cut-off date where people who can need to enrol in a school."
Mt Roskill Grammar deputy principal David Lett said the school's roll was shaping up to 2300. The intake of Year 9 students was expected to be 425.
Mr Lett said schools would have the help this year of the Ministry of Education's Enrol web-based system.
Under the system, intermediate schools recorded students who have left and secondary schools recorded those who enrolled with them.
"Those who don't appear on a roll will be chased up."
