Schools face roll explosion

Anna Lundon says St Mary's was first choice for her daughter Sophia Hornabrook's education. Photo / Doug Sherring

Some parents will face tough questions on how they want their children schooled as the Government grapples with a school-roll explosion.

An extra 30,000 children are predicted to turn up in Auckland primary, intermediate and high school classrooms over the coming decade. A new Education Ministry report, on the Western Bays area in Auckland, foreshadows the issue and the Government is working on how to accommodate the kids.

The projected population of kids aged under 15 in schools throughout Auckland is set to rise to 337,000 by 2021 as a result of a baby boom that started five years ago. This year it is thought there are 309,000 kids in school. In the Western Bays - including trendy Westmere, Ponsonby, Pt Chevalier and Grey Lynn - rolls are already 150 per cent above predictions and there could be 300 more students knocking on school doors by 2013, the report says.

Some popular Auckland schools are already enforcing school zones, shutting the doors on out-of-zone siblings or begging the Education Ministry for more classrooms - if they have room. The Government this week announced two new schools for Hobsonville.

In the wake of the Western Bays report - another is being done in Auckland Central - the Herald on Sunday can exclusively reveal that Education Minister Anne Tolley wants to give parents a say in future-proofing schools to avoid overcrowding.

Other problem areas are understood to be the Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Wanaka, Queenstown and some areas of Christchurch.

Tolley met Western Bay principals on Tuesday to tell them the implications of their high student number projections and discuss fix-it options.

She said parents in problem areas would have a say. Schools would ask them to decide things like "just how big they want their schools to be".

Tolley said classrooms could be in built in some areas but that could affect learning. There might be a trade-off for parents, since fees were generally more affordable in bigger schools and resources easier to get.

But the opposite might happen at smaller schools, which could see higher fees and some restrictions on what was available.

The Government could "loosen up some zones" for the future and was considering being more flexible with funding for buildings more quickly than usual: schools traditionally requested extra classrooms after students enrolled, which sometimes meant there was a "lag" in accommodating them.

Tolley said that for some areas facing "specific issues" she could "consider" giving building funding for out-of-zone siblings.

Anne Malcolm, chair of the Inner City Auckland Principals' Cluster, said the principals in the area planned to hold a community meeting soon with parents to discuss options. She said a couple of schools were already at the point of realising there was no option but to stop out-of-zone siblings because they had no room to grow.

New Zealand Principals' Federation president Peter Simpson said he hoped the Government would be as proactive with helping other popular school zones like Western Bays.

ST MARY'S GETS GOVT NOD TO BOOST ROLL TO 1000 GIRLS

A popular Ponsonby college which has educated some top names recently got Government approval to boost its student numbers.

It is one way the Education Ministry has started to accommodate a rising student population in the trendy Auckland area.

St Mary's College in Ponsonby now has Government funding to increase its roll from 800 to 1000 pupils, which will be implemented at 50 students a year and done over four years. The extra intake kicked off in February.

Principal Sandy Pasley said it was good news for the community and some of the 100 kids on their usual annual waiting list.

She said the Catholic school for girls, which accommodates year 7-13 students and charges compulsory attendance fees of $726 a year, has soared in popularity over recent years. The area used to be once full of the elderly but had become so popular with young families that the student population was skyrocketing.

One of the lucky students to start there this year was 11-year-old Sophia Hornabrook. Her parents Anna Lundon, a consultant in marketing, and Mark Hornabrook, a solicitor, put her on the waiting list more than a year ago.

Lundon said she was ecstatic her daughter was accepted; it had been the family's top choice of school through its strong academic reputation and because "we know very nice girls who have gone there".

The Herne Bay mum said she had lots of friends who were happy the school's roll had grown, which improved their chances for their girls' entry.

The school has helped educate a string of big names such as opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, former New Zealand women's cricket captain Emily Drumm and well-known broadcaster, writer and cook Peta Mathias, to name a few.