Waimea Intermediate has fewer students this year, despite earlier predictions the roll would continue to increase.
Principal Justine McDonald says the school year is kicking off with about 15 less students than the previous year, settling at 615.
Fifteen students may not sound a lot, but she says it is technically half a class which affects teacher numbers and funding. The school receives about $1,000 per student for operational funding and there are other areas of funding that will also be affected.
The school does have contingency plans in place for different scenarios though, she says.
Justine says some of the other schools in the region are also experiencing fluctuating rolls which does not match earlier predictions that student numbers at intermediate level would increase.
She wonders if lower student numbers are due to changing demographics, with a higher-than-expected number of families in the area who have young children not yet at intermediate level.
Student numbers have dropped from a range of contributing schools and she says it is not just the result of Wakefield School going through the process of recapitation where it has expanded to Year 7 students and will extend that to year 8 students in 2025.
The intermediate school begins the year a step ahead of the Government’s ban on cellphone use or access to them at school from term 2. The school banned phones last year and Justine says students even made wooden cabinets for phones to be housed in the classrooms during the day.
“From the start of last year, we made the call to hand in the phones at 9am and hand them out again at 3pm. So for us, it will be business as usual. We noticed a real change in the way students were interacting in the playground. To give them a spell from social media was awesome.”
At Garin College, principal John Maguire says the school already has cellphone rules where students can only use them at morning break or lunchtime. Those rules will be updated to meet the Government’s regulations and he says students will need this term to adjust to the increased restrictions.
Meanwhile the roll at Garin College continues to increase as it marches towards its maximum roll of 670 students.
This year the school has 40 more students on its roll, including 18 international students, taking the total to 658 to start the school year.
He expects the school to reach its maximum roll in 2025.
To cater for the growing roll, the school is building more classrooms this year and a multi-purpose learning centre at the beginning of next year.
“The growth in population in the area has contributed and we’ve also seen recognition of Garin’s positive education experience for students.”
The Waimea College roll has also increased this year, taking it to 1,622 students, and principal Fraser Hill expects numbers to settle around 1,610 by March which will be about 30 students more than last year.
