One school of thought

Photo: JASON OXENHAM

MODERN TEACHINGS: St David’s Presbyterian Church minister Reverend Doug Lendrum needs the community’s support to turn his parish into a primary school.

Dwindling congregation numbers at a 145-year-old church on Khyber Pass have sent its minister on a learning mission.

Reverend Doug Lendrum and the parish council of St David’s Presbyterian Church are looking into building a primary school on the church’s site.

Rev Lendrum says in order to keep up with times, the church wants to reclaim a new sense of identity by moving its religious heritage into a modern community based on education.

"We’re wasting our time trying to fill the church up," he says.

"We want to transform ourselves from a worshipping parish to a school offering a contemporary Christian view."

The proposed St David’s Primary School would be an integrated, co-educational school for pupils in years 1 to 6.

As an integrated school it would be 85 percent funded by the government while meeting national curriculum requirements, but it would also teach "post-modern" Christian values.

"It’s not the run of the mill Christian model. We have a theological difference that’s moving away from fundamentalism," Rev Lendrum says.

"Traditionally there has been a scholastic approach to the scriptures. Now we also have more of an inbuilt scepticism of how we accept the meaning of scriptures."

He says an estimated 1700 school-aged children live within the proposed zone that will extend from St Mary’s Bay and the downtown waterfront to Newmarket, as well as the inner city suburbs between Parnell and Kingsland.

"Depending on how many classrooms are built the proposed roll could range between 350 and 450 pupils," Rev Lendrum says.

In its heyday during the 1960s the Grafton church delivered up to four services every Sunday.

"Over the years we’ve had a high level of professional people who have been an instrumental part of developing Auckland and its systems and structures," he says.

The existing brick chapel was built in 1927 and requires major maintenance work that prompted the parish council to look at its future options for the land.

A number of ideas were floated before it was decided to look into building a special character primary school.

Rev Lendrum says the Education Ministry has been receptive to the idea, with statistics showing a growing demand for central schools.

But Jeremy Wood, acting deputy secretary for regional education, says Education Minister Anne Tolley would have absolute discretion on whether St David’s could become an integrated school.

"The Education Ministry assesses applications in terms of the requirements of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975, the Cabinet Guidelines and government priorities," he says.

"A report is then prepared for the minister who decides whether to enter into negotiations."

As part of the church’s application to the ministry to set up the proposed school, interest from families in the surrounding inner city suburbs is needed.

A public meeting will be held at the church on Thursday December 10 from 7pm to gather information and support from the community.

For more information contact Jenny Dalley on 302-3405 or email school@saint davids.org.nz.