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Members off the large student body at Ashburton Intermediate School, Year 8 students (from left) Brilee Hurst, Caitlin McSorley, Adasyin McLean, Briahna Walters, Ruby Graham and Katelyn Wilson. PHOTO SUE NEWMAN 070220-SN-0020
Primary rolls boom By Sue Newman
sue.n@theguardian.co.nz
Ashburton Intermediate School is bursting at the seams. Principal Brent Gray anticipated starting the new school year with a roll of 410. Two weeks in, it’s hit 440 and while he’s delighted to add such a large number of new arrivals to his roll, Gray said a bit of creative juggling was required to accommodate the extras. “We did put in an extra class this year as we had an idea the numbers would be up, but we weren’t quite prepared for them to be up this much, but it’s a positive problem and thankfully we started the year fully staffed,” he said.
Schools are funded by the Ministry of Education for one teacher for every 29 students and 30 plus was the tipping point for an extra teacher, Gray said. “Our classes are now sitting around 3132 and while that’s not ideal, that’s life.” The intermediate was fortunate that while it was up for a significant rebuild, likely to start later this year, it did have sufficient space to accommodate extra classes if the roll continued to grow, he said. In the past the school’s roll has topped 600. Across town at Hampstead School, principal Peter Melrose experienced a similar influx of extra students on day one. He had 15 new entrants on his books
but by the end of the first week his roll had grown by 39. “Fortunately they were across all ages. It did make for a very busy day in the office but now they’re all bedded in, everyone is smiling and life’s busy, but it’s all working,” he said. Melrose is counting himself lucky, his school was been built to accommodate growth and that means there is some wriggle room in terms of accommodating extra classes. When that’s exhausted, there’s always the school library, he said. At Allenton, the district’s largest primary school, the roll has been neatly balanced between leavers and new arrivals, principal Bruce Tilby said.
He’s enrolled 12 new entrants and an additional 13 new arrivals have been accommodated in other classes, but as the year progresses, Tilby is anticipating another 52 new entrants arriving at the school. If that’s where it stops, he said the school can accommodate the classes needed, but any more and the school’s library will be pulled into use as classroom space. After that the hall and as a last resort the old dental clinic will do a turn as learning hubs.
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