Scrapping school fees pays off

The scrapping of fees at two Palmerston North schools has benefited pupils outside the classroom.

Now they don’t have to pay fees, more children at Roslyn School and Ross Intermediate School are playing sports, while parents appreciate the extra money in their hip pockets.

The two schools ditched voluntary donations this year and pupils also aren’t charged for sports fees or sports uniform fees.

Roslyn principal Jo How says the fees-free policy has made a big difference. ‘‘We’ve had a huge response from our parents saying ‘thank you so much’,’’ she said.

‘‘We’ve had parents come in and say ‘because of this, our kids are playing sport. Before, they couldn’t. I’m able to do such and such’, little things like that.’’

The school wasn’t trying to increase its roll, but it is up.

How said parents had welcomed the change. ‘‘For example, we had a new family here last week and they’re trying to find a house. It’s being able to tell them you’re getting a Chromebook. If your children want to play basketball, they’re getting basketball teams organised at the moment.

‘‘There’s lots of things before they even get on with learning.’’

How said Roslyn would review the no-fees policy at the end of the year. ‘‘If it was detrimental to the school, we wouldn’t have done it.’’

Ross principal Wayne Jenkins had received positive feedback, too.

‘‘We’re finding there’s a high participation level across all sports, which was one of the hopes – to try and engage all kids in physical activity. A lot of kids don’t talk about sport at home because they know it’s going to be too difficult for the family.’’

Jenkins said the school was on track cost-wise. It had a stable, full roll and increasing that wasn’t one of the motivators.

‘‘For some of our top sporting kids, we’re putting hundreds, if not thousands, back into their family budgets.’’

Pupils are still asked to pay for camps because of the high cost.

Roslyn parent Samantha Wilmshurst wasn’t aware of the no-fees policy until she enrolled her 5-year-old son Issac recently.

‘‘It was a saving because I’m a solo mum with two kids.’’ Having no fees was an attraction, she said.

Another parent, Chris Knox, was happy there were no fees for his 6-year-old daughter Ocean.

‘‘That’s pretty good,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s helping us heaps. We just started coming to this school.’’

Ocean is yet to get involved in any school sports, but is considering it.