Schools work to gain back local community confidence

Schools struggling to attract local students say parents bypass them because of misconception, not reality.

A new study has found students travel a total of 171,000 kilometres a day getting to Christchurch schools, but would save 71,000km a day if they went to their nearest school.

Parents responding to University of Canterbury researcher Andrew Devonport’s research said their local school was not the right ‘‘fit’’ for their child, or they chose other schools for specific education reasons.

‘‘White flight’’ and longstanding prejudices appear to work against some schools.

Linwood College principal Dick Edmundson said the findings were ‘‘not a surprise’’.

The college, along with Mairehau and Hornby high schools, missed out on a potentially 200 per cent larger roll, Devonport’s study found. A community-initiated analysis last year showed parents commuted when they would rather not. It showed there was a gap between the school and its community.

Past conflict between management and staff, and its subsequent statutory intervention, did not help with Linwood College’s public perception.

Few children from its catchment suburbs like Sumner, Redcliffs, Mt Pleasant and Lyttelton went to Linwood College. But it was now working with primary schools there to reconnect to those communities, he said.

The analysis listed ways the school could improve community perception and it was working on implementing those.

The community wanted a local school with clear career pathways nurturing individual excellence, a safe and caring environment that embraced diversity, good leadership and support for its teachers, ease of transport to and from school, and facilities the whole community could share.

He already knew the ‘‘community talk has changed’’.

Mairehau High School principal Harry Romana said the current perception meant the school roll was either stagnant or tracking down. This was despite its latest Education Review Office report showing achievement exceeded outcomes at a national level.

Maintaining its role, currently at about 370 students, was ‘‘a real challenge for us’’. ‘‘A lot of parents have said to us that Mairehau High is a well kept secret.

‘‘I really wish that people would take the time to come and have a look and be informed. Have a look at ERO reports and national indicators rather than make assumptions about a school you don’t know anything about.’’

Hornby High School principal Robin Sutton argued that the less desirable perceptions about some schools went back to social deprivation. Students in low socioeconomic areas started ‘‘on the back foot’’, beginning life with hurdles like vocabulary deficits.

‘‘Our challenge is to continue to expose the reality in the hope we will change perception.’’

It was using social media and revamping its website to get positive messages about its school to the community.

It was not about competing, but giving the community confidence in its own local school again.

Canterbury West Coast Secondary Schools Association president Phil Holstein said the city’s principals were the only ones in the country working together to create a more sustainable enrolment network with less competition. It had commissioned an independent report to find a solution.

Perceptions of schools went back decades, but discerning parents were trying to match their children with the best fit of school, he said.