Rolls up for many SC schools

Nearly 10,000 pupils return to class

KATARINA FILIPE

It is back to school time this week and despite most Christchurch earthquake refugees who joined South Canterbury schools now having left, rolls at many schools are still higher than last year.

At the 37 primary and secondary schools The Timaru Herald was able to get information from – out of 46 in the region – about 7540 students will be back in the classroom or starting school for the first time this week.

The biggest roll jump among those 37 schools is at Bluestone School in Timaru.

Principal Ian Poulter said they would start the year with 515 pupils, up about 50 from last year, which was a "significant increase".

It was the biggest roll the school, which opened in 2005 after the merger of West and Main schools following a review of the district's schools, had had in the last three years.

"Prior to that we had bigger [rolls], but that was because we had been through a merger."

Thirty-eight children were new to the school, four had moved from Christchurch and seven were new entrants. Others had come from other Timaru schools or moved here from elsewhere in the South Island or overseas.

"I do think that the area around us has affordable housing, a number of rentals [and] there's also a new childcare facility across the road.

"We're growing but that's not to say that will continue forever."

Mr Poulter said the extra children were spread across the year levels, so the school would have 21 classrooms as usual and at this stage did not need more space.

Highfield School principal Shayne Gallagher said they seemed to have "a lot more" enrolments, with 268 children expected to start this week.

That was 23 more than last year, he said.

"We've also kept half of the children that came from Christchurch last year," Mr Gallagher said.

"We had 25 children turn up after February."

Another 14 schools said they also had more enrolments, with Waimate Centennial starting up another classroom, bringing it to a total of seven classrooms and 140 pupils.

Principal Barry Jury said its roll had been growing steadily each year, with an extra 11 pupils this year.

Mackenzie College principal Mark Jones said there would be 210 to 215 students, compared with 195 this time last year.

St Joseph's Temuka principal Bernie Leonard said the school had 10 more pupils starting this week, giving it a roll of 83, in-cluding one Christchurch pupil.

Sixteen schools said their roll was similar to last year and two said they had fewer students this year.

Education Ministry statistics show there were 9151 students from year 1 to 13 in the Timaru, Waimate and Mackenzie districts, as of July 1 last year.

- © Fairfax NZ News