Review wants intermediate schools gone
The findings of a Government-appointed taskforce into the Tomorrow’s Schools system have cast a shadow over the future of the country’s 115 intermediate schools.
An independent taskforce appointed by Education Minister Chris Hipkins has recommended that the schools – which cater for year 7 and 8 pupils – be scrapped.
The significant change is among 31 sweeping recommendations across eight key areas revealed yesterday as part of a bid to overhaul an education system no longer considered fit for purpose.
Instead, the group, led by chairman and former principal Bali Haque, favoured an increase in the number of middle (year 7 to 10) and composite schools (inclusive of both primary and secondary teaching).
‘‘We’ve got very big question marks about the future of intermediate schools. The two-year transition there seems to us really problematic,’’ Haque said at a media briefing yesterday.
The report said the taskforce had spoken with a number of intermediate principals over the course of the review. ‘‘All were in agreement that a longer period of ‘middle schooling’ would provide a greater learning and wellbeing.
‘‘We are also of the view that the twoyear intermediate schooling model is unnecessarily disruptive of learner/ a¯ konga pathways, and we are supportive of the network moving toward a middle schooling approach.’’
This stance was reiterated at yesterday’s briefing.
‘‘We’ve talked to intermediate schools and principals about this, and they quite like the idea of middle school because they want to hang on to their students for a longer period of time.’’
The move to middle schooling would allow for the development of senior colleges to provide tuition for year 11 to 13 students with a focus on qualifications.
Carterton couple Donna and Joe Hintz are faced with the decision of keeping their children in rural Gladstone School, with a roll of 140 children, or sending them to Masterton Intermediate.
They said they liked the leadership opportunities at the full primary school, and the smaller pupil numbers in the older year groups. ‘‘There are a lot of kids at intermediate, and there might be less opportunity to shine and to find your own way,’’ Donna said.
But Gladstone parents Karen and Michael Williams said they could see the merits of both forms of schooling, with their eldest child going to a rural full primary and a younger sibling going to Masterton Intermediate.
‘‘Sometimes the small school environment suits, sometimes they need a bigger pond,’’ Karen said.
Haque denied that the move would create derelict intermediate school campuses up and down the country. ‘‘We don’t see empty buildings, they’ll just be used differently.’’
New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa president Lynda Stuart felt raising the issue of intermediate schools should be ‘‘seen within the context of a wider conversation’’.
‘‘It’s been something that has been discussed for a long, long time, so it’s really good to be able to bring it out into the open and really put it into the perspective of not just getting rid of intermediate schools, but what is the best thing for our children,’’ Stuart said.
The taskforce’s recommendations were out for consultation until April.
Masterton Intermediate School principal Russell Thompson said ywear 7 and 8 pupils were going through important physical and emotional changes, and being together through that process could be very beneficial.
With 515 pupils, the school was one of Wairarapa’s biggest and was able to provide an impressive suite of extracurricular activities that smaller schools couldn’t.