Education

Enrolment zone changes

<h2>With the expectation that by 2030&comma; there will be an additional 60&comma;000 schoolchildren to educate in the Auckland region&comma; a review of enrolment zones is part of the consideration on how to cater for the growth&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The Ministry of Education issued a statement saying&comma; &&num;8220&semi;While growth is happening across the country&comma; Auckland&comma; in particular&comma; has been experiencing significant and sustained growth and by 2030 we expect there will be 60&comma;000 more school-aged children in the region&period; To meet that demand we are building new schools and classrooms&comma; but have also been looking at enrolment zones&period; Enrolment schemes and managing down out-of-zone students are the first tool we use to manage down utilisation at schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"xxmsonormal">&&num;8220&semi;We have always tried to include siblings of existing students as part of the transitional arrangements&ast; when putting in or amending an enrolment scheme&period; That will not change&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Auckland&comma; around 58&percnt; of schools already have enrolment schemes&period; Last year&comma; the MoE began a three-phase enrolment scheme programme for the region&period; Through phase one of the programme&comma; the Ministry introduced or amended enrolment schemes at 47 schools taking effect from term one this year&period; It is currently finalising the enrolment schemes for six schools from phase one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are 55 schools in phase two of the Auckland enrolment scheme programme &lpar;including the six schools carried over from phase one whose enrolment scheme will take effect in term two&rpar;&period; The Ministry is speaking with the boards of the schools involved in phase two and expect to start some community consultation by June&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Community consultation will likely include public meetings&comma; school meetings&comma; public notices through community newspapers&comma; letters&comma; surveys and use of the school’s own communication channels&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We anticipate that most of the enrolment schemes or amendments will take effect from Term 1 2022&period; We have not yet finalised the schools that will be involved in phase three but will be working to a similar timeframe with enrolment schemes or amendments taking effect by Term 1 2023&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We are also consulting on a number of changes to the Education and Training Act&ast;&ast;&period; One of the proposed changes is around the priority order of enrolments for out-of-zone learners&period; We are consulting on lowering the priority for siblings of former students and removing the priority for children of former students as a priority group&period; There is no plan to change the priority for siblings of current students&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ast;The Education and Training Act 2020 allows for transitional provisions to be included in an enrolment scheme&comma; to allow for siblings of current students to enrol at a school&comma; even when their residence is no longer in the new &lpar;or amended&rpar; home zone&period; This reflects our aim to keep siblings together at the same school rather than having parents&sol;caregivers with children at separate schools&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If it is agreed that out of zone siblings can be enrolled by right&comma; it will take longer for the impact of the enrolment scheme to take effect&period; This means that we would consider supporting the transitional arrangement only where having the additional siblings means that the school is not overcrowded&comma; and there is still space for the in-zone students&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ast;&ast;You can read more about these proposals here&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;conversation&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;conversations&sol;education-and-training-amendment-bill" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Education and Training Amendment Bill &lpar;No 2&rpar;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Current and proposed enrolment priorities<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The current enrolment priorities are&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>students accepted into a special programme&ast;&ast;&ast; run by the school<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>siblings of current students<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>siblings of former students<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>children of former students<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>children of board employees and board members<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>all other students&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>1&period; Option one is to keep these priorities as is&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>2&period; Under option two&comma; the enrolment priorities would be&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>students accepted into a special programme&ast;&ast;&ast; run by the school<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>siblings of current students<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>children of board employees and board members<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>siblings of former students<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>all other students&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>3&period; Under option three&comma; the enrolment priorities would be&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>students accepted into a special programme&ast;&ast;&ast; run by the school<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>siblings of current students<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>children of board employees and board members<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>all other students&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>&ast;&ast;&ast; Special programmes for the purpose of enrolment schemes are programmes that have been approved as special programmes by the Secretary for Education and offer special education&comma; M&amacr;ori language immersion classes&comma; or any other type of specialised education to overcome educational disadvantage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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