Switching schools a ‘massive challenge’

‘‘For sure we want them to stay - it would make our life a whole lot easier.’’ Richard McMillan

Schools are worried about the large number of children and young people changing schools and Taihape Area School principal Richard McMillan has sounded the alarm in his latest newsletter to parents.

It’s a ‘‘massive challenge’’, he wrote in the newsletter.

Many schools, especially those from lower decile areas, were grappling with what he called ‘‘the disheartening impact’’ of high rates of student transience.

In an interview, McMillan said about a third of his decile 4 school’s pupils moved on every year. That’s 80-odd kids out of a roll of 250 to 260 Year 1-13 students.

Parents chasing jobs was one of the main reasons for moving it seems, but when you’ve got kids going to up to as many as six different schools in a year, it could have a huge impact on their education.

The disruption was especially tough on younger children whose efforts to learn basic skills like reading were damaged by having to change so often.

McMillan said the trend was also hard on teachers as they sought to do the best for the youngsters in their classroom, often to only see them vanish just when progress was being made.

Another consequence identified by him in the newsletter was research that showed the major problems caused by transience arose from the multiple issues these children face - academic, behavioural and otherwise.

Schools poured resources into these children at the expense of others.

But it was the transient children who were often those in the greatest need, McMillan wrote. So it’s a bit of a no-win squeeze for small, rural schools, such as Taihape.

McMillan also wrote: ‘‘One of the major problems schools face is obtaining information about children from their previous school (s).

‘‘This can be a real issue and teachers spend many meeting hours discussing how to support them.’’

In his interview, McMillan said the problems of transience were faced by many schools, not just those in rural areas.

It was a societal thing and ‘‘perfectly understandable’’ that parents moved in search of work.

‘‘We have no control over that though. For sure we want them to stay - it would make our life a whole lot easier.’’

McMillan said on the positive side of mobility there was a ‘‘trickle’’ of families shifting to Taihape for lifestyle reasons and to escape high northern house prices.