School camps saved after exemption given from new donation rules

School camps have been saved — but parents will still have to pay for them.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins says new guidelines will allow schools to charge parents for school camps and still get a new grant of $150 per student per year for schools that stop asking parents for “donations”.

The impromptu announcement in response to questions drew loud applause at an NZ Principals’ Federation conference yesterday in Auckland.

Dunedin North Intermediate principal Heidi Hayward, who asked the question, said Ministry of Education officials only last week “were very clear that, under the rules, if we take on the scheme [the $150 grant], we will no longer be able to ask parents for any form of donation and that would rule out camps”.

“In our decile 7 school, if we were to take on the scheme, we would no longer offer the school camp because the school camp costs more than the donation,” she told Hipkins.

Hipkins replied: “The rules around the criteria for accepting the $150 haven’t yet been completed, we are in the process of developing that. But I can confirm that school camps will be exempt from that.”

The May 30 Budget allocated $75 million a year from next January to pay the $150 per student to all schools in deciles 1 to 7 that stop asking parents for donations.

The grant will give a huge boost to low-decile schools such as Finlayson Park School in Manurewa, whose camp is largely funded by fundraising and charitable donations.

Hipkins declined to spell out any other exceptions, so it is not yet clear whether schools will also be able to charge parents for computers, technology materials, workbooks, swimming lessons and other curriculumrelated costs which many state schools charge for despite the rules.

Maidstone Intermediate principal Mary O’Regan said last month: “Every school breaks those rules. There is a blind eye turned.

“We call things different things. We cannot offer those extra things if we don’t, and they are so important, those experiences for the kids.”

Principals’ Federation president Whetu Cormick said principals would be “pleased and relieved” that they could still charge for camps.

Conference convenor and Tomarata School principal Jill Corkin said school camps were “such an integral part of our school system in New Zealand”.

“They are part of our DNA.” Hipkins refused to answer principals’ questions about pay in advance of a meeting between the ministry and the NZ Educational Institute this Friday.