Once upon a time there was a powerful woman who held the future of nearly 100 students in her hand. She had the choice to listen to her advisers or to listen to the people who knew the children and what the school could do for them. To be fair to her advisers, they had been asked to help her find $35M to pay to the private schools, but even so, a poor little public school serving a vulnerable community was served up to her on a platter and she devoured it – every last morsel – (despite the staple diet). But this poor little school is fighting back – and so to court!
I knew that Education Minister, Anne Tolley, had made up her mind back in February to close Aorangi School and I knew that no amount of logic or passion would persuade her otherwise. But it still hurt when I heard that she had made the call this afternoon; and in typical high-handed fashion she notified the media of her decision, before the school could let their community know. This decision is wrong – plain and simple. I have read every briefing paper that the school has obtained copies of under the Official Information Act and I have never seen such biased and prejudicial ”advice” . Everything has been written with closure to the forefront. In fact the Minister signed the death warrant in February – today’s announcement is just the execution warrant.
You might ask why I am so interested in this school - their own MP, Hon Gerry Brownlee, has been missing in action – in fact he has white-anted the school behind their back. It simply isn’t good enough. I have already started questioning who wants the land?
There will be more to be said about this subject!
What did you expect from Gerry Brownlie. He is so swollen headed these days it is amazing he can enter the front door of Parliament Buildings!
The 90 kids left at Aorangi School are probably the result of surrounding schools being allowed to grow incrementally. The old trick is to build extra classrooms early in the year with the intention of having space for music, ESOL, reading recovery or something – and then fill that space with new entrants from out of zone in Term 1 next year. Then build a new classroom for the music teacher ..
Did this happen down there?
Chopper Tolley strikes again!
How many institutions that have hosted John Key have disappeared now?
$2 million? Chump change compared with how much money Key blew this week passing the ETS under urgency so New Zealand can be a world leader.
In the meantime I am preparing to administer my nightly eyedrops in Hong Kong to remedy the effects of real pollution that we don’t pay for here as Hong Kong, being part of China doesn’t have to worry about these targets as we are still developing!
Blip is right . Merrill Lynch gone, Elders gone,Bankers Trust gone, LWR gone , but Aorangi school???.
Are we next ?. he sure is running the government like its a third rate merchant Bank could give us some idea
Chopper Tolley claimed a shortfall
Chopper Tolley cried disenthrall
All the school’s students and all the school’s teachers couldn’t put Aorangi together again.
(Sorry a bad move required a bad poem).
Anne Tolley just irritates me, I don’t know what it is about her (well, actually I do, but Trevor will probably delete it if I put it on here).
You have to feel sorry for the school students here. I don’ think that Anne gives a stuff!
The Aorangi school children can go to the Burnside Primary School surely ? It’s only a short distance away. There is Cobham intermediate even closer. We looked at putting our children into Aorangi and chose Burnside Primary instead,
and the children had to walk as far as many of the Aorangi children do too ! That area of Christchurch is very very well endowed with schools. What are schools for anyway, children or teachers ? And who is a Labour Party person to complain of school closures ? Didn’t your government close schools ?
So, there you are, a willing participant in a large staff meeting to hear some wisdom from the boss about the future direction of the sector in which you are working. Over the last year, there’s been massive churn in the upper echelons in management, policies and procedures which require extra effort and diligence have been imposed, you’ve been told there’ll be no payrise this year, significant units within the sector have been closed down for no apparent good reason, the boss has been making ridiculous statements and being made a fool of in the media – but there you are, in the meeting, waiting to hear some wisdom, some rationale for the behaviour, some sort of logic to melt the lunacy into an, at least, semi-coherent plan. Out strides the boss onto the stage. Looking smart in obviously new, flash clothes, accompanied by muttering functionaries, the boss takes the podium, sorts notes, clears the throat . . . and then reads you a childrens’ book about an incredibly happy rat!!!
W T F !!!
I’m sorry but aren’t there 4 schools within 1.5 kms and the cost to repair the school was measured in the millions with 90 students and falling..?
What am I missing, this seems like a sensible use of taxpayer money to me, the land can also be sold to pay down debt and infill land to make public transport more viable…
Jeremy
it’s beside the point, a lot of the kids at aorangi have learning difficulties and uprooting them from their comfort zone will set them back months.
Not to mention that in the next 5 – 10 years we’re going to be facing a shortage of schools (again) as the past 24 months have been our biggest boom period of new kids on the block.
Short sighted thinking from the Gnacts as usual.
please do not use obscene language even if you pretend that you can’t spell Trevor
The Press today reports 27 staff at the school for 90 children.
That’s a bit over the top in pupil-teacher ratios isn’t it ?
Parkdrive says “…a lot of the kids at aorangi have learning difficulties ” – well so children at Cobham and Burnside Primary old chap.
I wonder what the staff at the other local schools think about Aorangi’s pupil-teacher ratio – have you got an answer to that one Mrs Dalziel ?
How many schools did Trevor close when he was the Minister of Education? I guess that was different…..
I certainly never closed a school using a process as flawed as Tolley has in this case. It will be interesting to see the results of the judicial review.
There are 27 staff at the school – that includes:
Teaching staff (including teachers, ESOL teacher, Reading Recovery etc)
Support staff (secretary, cleaner, caretaker)
OSCAR staff
Teacher Aides
An RTLB unit employed by the school but with 6 or so staff
The bilingual unit
The Project Diamond class – a specialised social, emotional and behavioural intervention innovation for at risk students.
@richgraham – Think outside the square – staff in a school incompass many kinds of staff – do you think schools only employ teachers!! Incidentally, not all are protected by so called redundancy packages. oh, and they do have excellent teacher child ratios – bilingual units are staffed at 1:18, but my understanding is that the bot also ensure that class sizes are small – in order to cater for the extremely diverse and vulnerable students. I wish all school bots could afford to provide that level of care – because many have large class numbers and kids like the ones at Aorangi will get lost in the system.
As for spending 2mill – tiny little drop in the education bucket for a school that does not have a falling roll (but its great you believe the PR rubbish that the moe and minister tell you), there is not any capacity at the other schools – in fact they are short of spaces and currently at capacity – two of the schools are zoned and effectively stop access to most of the students – and just to top it all off, the size of school is about average for NZ – may be small for CHCH but if you went on that size, may as well close most of the schools in nz.
And just for the record – the minister has to spend heaps of money on property at the other schools because they know that there is not the capacity. This is about a land grab – much like the school the minister closed two weeks ago in Ackl – with land worth 20mill. I guess she needs to claw her money back (the 35mill she gave private schools) somehow.
Trevor
Watch Battlestar Galactica (the new series). Then you’ll get it.
Thanks for the discussion.
@richgraham – Aorangi is not a full primary, whereas Cobham is an intermediate school, so it isn’t relevant to the debate. I heard the principal of Burnside say on TV tonight that he hasn’t been given enough time to cater for the additional students.
@Jeremy Harris – yes there are 4 schools within 1.5km radius but two of them have enrolment schemes that exclude almost all the Aorangi students (Waimairi – Decile 9- and Fendalton – Decile 10)and when I asked the Minister why she made this misleading statement she said they would have to change their enrolment zones. But since this requires 3 months notice after the new boundaries have been agreed and these schools haven’t even been told their zones are going to be changed it cannot be done in time for term 1 next year.
And for @Robb too – Yes Trevor closed schools – but as part of a proper network review which meant every cent saved was driven back into the network to strengthen education provision overall – not this approach which seems to me to involve nothing more than an opportunistic saving of money without engaging with the network (and therefore not actually knowing where these kids will end up – a high risk strategy).
The other schools in the area are
Wairakei – 700 metres away
Bryndwr – 850 metres
Fendalton – 970 metres
Burnside – 1150 metres
There is also a Catholic school about 1000 metres away.
There is, if truth be told, ample provision for these children to be educated near their homes without needing to keep this small niche school open, small schools represent an inefficient duplication of resources. It is not for example going to take 27 staff to teach these children at the other schools, because they already have resources in place that are duplicated at Aorangi.
@swampy – I’m guessing you probably work for the MoE as you seem to struggle to understand data vs reality.
Firstly, there is no school called Bryndwr – it is suburb.
Secondly, the children of Aorangi don’t fly to school so using “as the crow flies” distances is just more misleading and pointless info.
Thirdly, the “inefficient duplication of resources” is the typical short-sighted fiscal arguement that ignores the reality that this niche school addresses the needs of a vunlerable segment of society far more cheaply and efficiently than failing them now and picking up the pieces later.
If this situation was as simple as you suggested then maybe the Minister and the MoE would both have been able to understand it and act appropriately.
Welcome back Swampy – I recall reading somewhere that you are a MOE/education person so it surprises me that you would be writing incorrect facts – I have to agree with Tama – data v reality does seem to be lacking.
The reality is that the schools in the area are:
- not as close as you think – try again
- the moe have acted in such a way that this school is being punished to cover up the moe’s own incompetence (see Lianne D’s big write up in the press)
- This is more about back room deals for the use of that land than what is right for children – and it sends a direct message to the children at that community that they are not rich or white enough to matter. As a community who need these kids to be successful in the future – this is only going to lead to further issues when they fail the system. Nice way to treat refugee, migrant, maori and pacifica kids. The Nats should be proud – not.
Finally Swampy – you have mentioned on this blog several times about the duplication of resources. I have said before that I know people in the school – this duplication of resources issue was only ever discussed in moe briefings -never in the media. Therefore it is something only those involved would know. Your absolute determination to fudge the facts and mislead the public makes sense when I consider the info you try to provide and the comments made previously. This is both sad and disappointing, but I do congratulate you on continuing to protect a moe that have acted with appalling unprofessionalism and incompetence. That at least shows some level of loyalty.
The schools are pretty close, you don’t have to look on anything except a map to know this. I lived in that area for many years and know all the locations well. Most of the other schools are much larger and this has always been the case as far as I know.
Aorangi School was started as an overflow from Wairakei, not because there really was a need for another school in an area that is very well served.
Ultimately the MOE are entitled to decide whether the school operates as they are paying out large sums of money to any school in NZ and have to be publicly accountable for those funds and this is the same for any school regardless that receives any public money from the government. The Labour Government closed quite a few schools in their last terms so I think Lianne is exploiting this matter mainly politically because there doesn’t seem to be any other sensible explanation.
Also has Labour ever sat on land and said they will not sell the land of a school they closed, of course not and one that comes to mind is selling land at Kingslea (which is also a school) when the community around it was campaigning for it to be closed because of their obvious interest in enhancing their own property values. That obviously is not happening here so that we can clearly rule out such suggestions. As these are public funds it is fairly obvious that we expect the government to sell that land and return the funds for taxpayer benefit and saying that is not beneficial to education is nonsensical.
It is a well proven fact that larger schools offer more opportunities to most children and a large school or specialist centre can be very effective at delivering niche programmes like the ones that are being talked about at Aorangi.
You may say crow flies is irrelevant but the fact is that people who are sending their children to Aorangi live in all sorts of different addresses and some of those are likely to be much closer to these other schools than the distances I have given which are just a guideline.
I have never worked for the MOE, I am an interested bystander with a community involvement over many years in a number of schools (which lots of people in the community do if they are interested in the contribution that schools make to society)
In a nutshell one of the things that is being implied is that a small school should be kept because large schools nearby couldn’t do a good enough job.
If that were true there should be no schools over 100 in NZ and there would be thousands more schools.
But in fact education is being delivered effectively in schools whether large or small and in reality this argument does not stack up, but small schools are more expensive to operate and have other issues. There is no simple answer to the swings and roundabouts of small vs large but there is simply no clear cut evidence to support the notion that a small school is automatically better than a large one.
I also have confidence, having had connections in the past with three of the schools that are within that close radius that we mentioned, that all of them will do their utmost for the children that moved from Aorangi when it closes, and there is no reason on that basis to suppose that there is any rational evidence for claims that these children will fall through the cracks at the other larger schools.
You do, however Swampy, need to know how to read said map to diferenciate between a school and a suburb but that is rather beside the point I guess.
Your comment that Aorangi was created as an overflow is indeed correct – it was considered the fitting more children onto the Wairakei site was not a wise idea and yet now, 50 years later when the school is much larger than it was then, that is exactly what they plan to do. Not surprising many of the Wairakei parents aren’t keen on the idea either.
When you write a statement such as “It is a well proven fact that larger schools offer more opportunities to most children and a large school or specialist centre can be very effective at delivering niche programmes like the ones that are being talked about at Aorangi” you should consider the key concepts of “most children” and “can be” more carefully. Unless you feel you can honestly write “all children” and “are very effective” (and I give you credit for being honest enough not to do that) then I think logic would have to support the option of allowing access to a variety of educational alternatives even if they are more costly in the short term for the long term benefit – I note you had the decency not to argue that point.
Once more I note you try to simplify the argument – this time down to small vs big. If you had followed and understood the situation more accurately you would realise the size argument is only being made by the MoE and the Minister.
Aorangi and it’s many supporters very rational argument is that the services, programmes and experience that Aorangi currently provides/possesses would be extremely difficult and costly to replicate in a timely manner at other local schools. It would be naïve in the extreme to claim that children will not fall through the cracks as has happened so many times before (different governments – same ministry) and considering the research clearly indicates that one such “dropped” child will but an economic burden on the state of some $3 000 000 dollars I still fail to see any logical or rational argument for shutting the school.
And as for your ongoing argument about the duplication of resources the opposite is probably true. Aorangi is a magnet school for the relatively small number of children who need the programmes they offer. Once transferred to other local schools their needs will not change and instead the fairly labour intensive programme will need to be duplicated in the other school for a smaller number of children but at a much higher cost.
Once more – this is not a simple situation, it does not have a simple answer and the wrong decision will cost society financially and socially for years to come. As a parent of children growing up in that society I don’t want to see them facing that ongoing burden.
@Tama – It is good to see you point out the ‘replication’ of services will cost an awful lot more if the other schools have to attempt ‘replicating’ these programmes – at least at Aorangi they have been designed for the tricky needs of these children – making it cheaper to implement – because they are similar students with similar needs. Closing the school and sending them out into a number of other schools makes it almost impossible to ‘replicate’ the special services for these kids.
AND, shutting this school means that these following resources WILL NOT be availiable for these children, because the other schools are too high of a decile and can not provide these – not because they do not want to but because they are not eligible. But to people like Swampy, the loss of these resources are not important – after all, to the Nats, these kids are not important to society.
- SWIS – social worker in schools
- Kidscan (food, clothing, opportunities)
- Free holiday camps
- Breakfast
- Duffy Books (free books for kids who would never have access to them)
- Specialised programmes (too many to mention – oh and Swampy – they are not offered at the other schools)
- heated swimming pool (and most of the pools around that area have been closed)
- only bilingual unit in the area
- only nurture class for young people in Chch (in fact – first real jnr one in the country – there is one other now in Ack)
- and heaps more
I feel very sorry for this community, the kids, the fantastic staff and the BOT who have been such strong advocates for these kids. This is inequity at work and a there is a real lack of justice – all of NZ should be ringing her office (as advised by Jason Gunn this morning on his radio show) and letting her know what they think of this traversty.
Incidentally, the same radio show called her Anne Wolley – quite liked that – thought it fitted her well.
@swampy – oct 25th 09 – on the standard, you wrote
“I work in the education system…”
This, with your insider info, makes me wonder just a bit more…
It’s quite obvious closure has been considered for years, two of them under a previous Labour government. In 2006 the school’s buildings were condemned needing replacement. The Labour minister of the time said they would rebuild as a 21st century school. School draws up plans and sends them in, all approved. Then the next year the Ministry drops the plan, says they are going to provide only a few basic classrooms. The school gets given some rubbishy old temporary buildings to keep them going, all the while the school isn’t rebuilt.
Pretty obvious from that that by 2007 the Ministry has decided the school should close, they put it to the Minister who decides to defer as there is an election looming with Labour well behind in the polls. But in the meantime the school has to be kept open so they are strung along with temporary buildings. I guess if they had got their classrooms they would have been relocatables.
All that I have stated is public information that you can find on the net or on the school’s own website. I have no
insider knowledge. What do you claim that is insider knowledge? It is all public information and common sense.
There are 4 state schools in the area, Wairakei is not the only school.
There has been a lot of nonsense talked somewhere(?) about decile inequity, yet some of those other schools are dealing with the same decile in some of their pupils (a school’s decile rating must be an average across all their pupils). All of the schools in that area deal with pupils with the same socio economic backgrounds as pupils from Aorangi because there are communities of low socio-economic status dotted around the whole area.
Regardless of the distance of the neighbouring schools, how far would the pupils have to travel to receive the same level of teaching in relation to the bilingual unit?
This whole closure has the reek of conservative Christchurch doing over the local darkies by taking advantage of the most stupid minister of education since Lockwood Smith.
I agree with postings here. The axe was embedded in this school a few years ago – once that stage is reached, it is really hard to save a school.
It sounds like the community has lost a real asset. And parents have lost choice – memo Heather Roy. NOt that Heather Roy would understand true parent choice anyway!!
THe state does not hesitate to squeeze “failing” schools these days, in the hope that they go way. Fair comment?
In fighting to keep Aorangi open we are not saying the other schools are bad they are good for their communities,merely that they are not the best option for this group of vulnerable children. The programmes,pastoral care, and Bilingual unit in place at Aorangi have taken years to design and implement for this community. We are concerned for the children that will fall through the cracks while the other schools learn to cater for their neeeds as Aorangi has. I live in the area and am well aware of the closeness of 3 of the schools in particular and watch the strange dance of children in different uniforms passing each other on the ways to the different schools. The parents have made the best choice they beieve for their chidren surely a right for every New Zealander.