Chester Borrows: Schools snapshot of community

Chester Borrows PHOTO/FILE

ON Monday this week I had lunch with a local minister of the cloth.

We talked about an initiative in his church where the second-hand clothing shop was sold and profits were used to send kids on school camps.

It is a wonderful example of churches meeting the needs of local folk.

But no matter how hard they try to help some kids, parents can stand in the road of the child getting the best deal.

One said: "I'm not sending him to camp. He'll only grow up and go to jail like his dad - so what's the point?"

You just cannot help some people, and if you can't help them, you can't help their kids.

A young boy is moved from pillar to post because his parents keep offending and run from the law. In Year 5, as a 9-year-old, he is already attending his sixth school.

His parents refuse to engage with the school - they won't answer the phone, attend school meetings or answer letters. Any attempt to visit the home by the principal and teacher is met by ferocious dogs while the parents remain hiding inside the house.

The saddest part of today's education system is Special Education - I have never been able to fathom the formula for deciding who gets it and who doesn't, and on what basis the hours of teacher aide time are allocated.

A child who has ADHD is on medication and has other severe disabilities which affect their ability to learn, and also distract all their classmates. That student has been granted 13 hours per week, but is in school for 30 hours per week.

The New Zealand Herald reported that last year Special Education Services under-spent $6 million of its allocation, yet schools were out of pocket and topping up teacher aide hours for Special Education from their operational grants.

Again we find that the best results from Special Education Services come when parents are totally supportive of their children's education - and most of them are.

But others move from place to place on a whim and so the child, just learning to make their way in a new school, has to start all over again because caregivers have decided to move on.

Despite that, the achievement statistics in education at both primary and secondary levels have lifted considerably, and vulnerable kids are doing better than previously.

I visited Avon School in Stratford - a decile 1A school - where teachers and parents interact via a website with parents accessing their children's achievements via their phones. Even low-income households have smartphones and can engage and offer encouragement to their children with words or praise and support for education.

Visiting schools is one of the most enjoyable and insightful activities of an electorate MP. It is a snapshot of a community that exposes and exhibits the best and worst of the social sector.

It is where health, welfare, justice, education, employment and non-governmental organisations strut their stuff for all to see who want to see.

In all of this, the star performers are the principals, teaching staff, parents and children who make the most of every opportunity to learn regardless of the limiting factors of income, decile rating, history, experience or expectation.

Winners are grinners - and there are lots of smiling faces in our schools. I encourage you all to get to know your local school.