Mixed reaction to decile changes

Kaharoa School principal Warwick Moyle

Early outcomes from the Ministry of Education's decile review are being met with mixed reactions from Rotorua school principals.

While some principals are considering themselves lucky their decile rating has gone down, others, who have been given a higher rating, are having to re-budget to account for lost funding.

Decile 1 schools have the most students from low socio-economic communities while decile 10 schools have the least. Schools with lower deciles are given more government funding. The last time ratings were reviewed was after the Census in 2006. All schools will know their new decile by Thursday, however, several schools have already been informed of their new rating.

Western Heights Primary School's rating has gone from decile 2 to decile 1, increasing the school's funding by an extra $40,000. Principal Brent Griffin said he was stoked with the outcome and knew exactly where the additional money would go.

"The extra $40,000 will go towards funding our special needs programmes. Earlier in the year we had to reduce the hours of our teacher aides so now we will have the chance to increase that again. We are very happy to go down to a decile 1 as it means we can better provide programmes for our children."

Mr Griffin said families needed to realise the decile rating of a school didn't reflect its student achievement levels.

"It can be a difficult concept to get across to families but the decile of a school is in no way a grading.

"That is what the Education Review Office (ERO) is for."

Owhata Primary School principal and president of the Rotorua Principals Association Bob Stiles said he was pleased his school decile rating went from a decile 3 to a decile 2.

"It is good news financially and I think the decrease more accurately reflects the students and their needs in our school," he said.

"More funding means more resources so we are definitely happy with the result of the review."

But Kaharoa Primary School wasn't so fortunate, losing $6000 as a result of its increase from decile 9 to decile 10.

Principal Warwick Moyle said he was disappointed with the revaluation. "We've had to re-budget to account for the deficit. Money is always tight in education so we are disappointed our rating went up.

"We were hoping to go down to a decile 8 or at least stay at decile 9, so it was a surprise when we found out it had gone up."

Mr Moyle said he would be discussing the decile rating funding cut at the Board of Trustees meeting and the ramifications for both school operations and for parents.

-The Rotorua Daily Post will publish a full round up of the region's decile rating changes when the review is completed.