School defends expulsions

The number of students expelled from Feilding High School has landed the college in trouble with education authorities.

From January 2000 to June this year, it excluded 101 students.

The only school to top this was Avondale College in Auckland with 135. However, Avondale had 2661 students enrolled last year, more than double Feilding's roll of 1241 this year.

Suspension and exclusion rates at Feilding are significantly greater than at other schools of similar type, size and decile, which is the socio-economic level of the school community.

The school's suspension and exclusion rates are such that the Education Review Office wants the Secretary for Education to intervene.

The ERO says it lacks confidence in the trustee board's ability to reduce the rates, which are among the highest in New Zealand.

The school has rejected the report, questioning the ERO's objectivity.

Principal Roger Menzies believes that other schools have much higher exclusion rates because they practise "Kiwi suspensions", where a principal suggests to parents that they taketheir child out of the school beforethe child is excluded.

Mr Menzies said the ERO had preconceived opinions - "They had decided and they were coming in to confirm."

Board of trustees chairman Peter Griffin said the new board met only once before the ERO visited the school and for the ERO to say it had no confidence in the board was ridiculous.

"They should give us 12 months, let us see what we can do."

The report said that on occasions, the board had excluded students with no significant record of behaviour problems when alternatives should have been considered.

Mr Menzies said that applied only to drug-related matters and the ERO had refused to put that in the report.

The Ministry of Education will decide what to do within the next month.

- NZPA