Primary-age boarding option in city disappears
Boarding options for children below year 7 in Christchurch will come to an end when the last primary school offering accommodation will close its facilities this year.
Selwyn House School, a private independent girls’ school, is the only remaining Christchurch primary school offering boarding to young children, after Medbury School closed its facilities for boys last year.
Its boarding house will permanently close at the end of the year, the school announced on Friday.
The house had run at a significant financial loss for a number of years, despite a “slight” increase in boarders in recent times, said Selwyn House principal Julie Calder.
There are 20 students boarding this year, of whom 70% are in their final year at the school, which covers years 1 to 8. Its full capacity accommodates 25 students.
The minimum age for boarding at the Merivale school increased this year from year 3 (7-year-olds) to year 5 (9-year-olds).
Calder said boarders are mostly from around the wider Canterbury region, with pockets from Marlborough and Wānaka.
The school had been offsetting the deficit because it was in a comfortable financial position to do so, she said, but the reality was “there’s just not enough boarders in our boarding house for it to become a financially viable part of our school”.
It was an “expensive branch of the school” to run, she said, which became more difficult with the rising cost of living in recent years. It was also “hard” to forecast future numbers.
The boarding house has been in operation for 89 of the school’s 95-year history but, following an expansive review, the board found even when operating at full occupancy it would not financially sustain itself.
“We have seriously thought long and hard about this, and it’s not my favourite day,” Calder said. “My heart at the moment is with the families and community, and that is where my priority is, to help support them and still continue to provide them with a really positive experience while they’re with us.”
Calder said she could not speak on behalf of parents’ wants or wishes when asked why all primary school boarding facilities had closed within a year of each other, but said that schooling had changed across the country, and there were good schools in local areas.
Four permanent positions in the house and kitchen will be lost because of the closure and a consultation process is under way with those staff, including consideration of any redeployment opportunities available.
School board chairperson Julian Daly said it was a “sad end” and that the boarding house was “relatively small and feels like a second family for all of those who board and work there”. “It is the impact on these staff and on the boarding families that has made this decision a particularly difficult one,” Daly said.
The only other Christchurch schools to take primary aged boarders are girls’ schools Rangi Ruru and St Margaret's College from year 7, before high schools become an option from year 9 for all students.
The fee to board a pupil at Selwyn House is $18,350 a year, on top of a tuition fee ranging from $17,100 to $22,500 depending on year level.