Stupid zoning policies
I went to Island Bay Primary School for six years. It was a great school and I had a great time there being a goody goody who was not just bell monitor, but tuckshop supervisor, road crossing person, assistant teacher with the primers etc etc.
Anyway it seems to still be a great school, because more and more parents want their kids to attend. But alas out centrally controlled education system can’t allow a school to become popular and keep expanding its size, if there are other schools with capacity. Nope parents can’t have a choice – they must be sent to the other school.
So the Ministry of Education is going to shrink the Island Bay school zone. Mothers like Leonie Wilson who are fifth generation Island Bay will not be guaranteed to be able to have her two year old attend Island Bay Primary along with her older sister.
Island Bay Primary School has the space for extra classrooms. It should be allowed to expand, rather than force local kids to go to other schools.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
DPF in the main on school zoning, i disagree with you.
Purly coming from a point of the material assets involved in all schools, ie buildings, furniture, etc i think that increasing the size of the popular school at the expense of a under performing school is wrong.
To me, if a neighbouring school is under performing, then that problem should be sorted.
Why should those children at a school that is under performing not expect the same standard of education as that school deemed to be performing to a higher standard.
If the staff, systems, building, resourses, or what ever is reason is not happening then it should be fixed. If staff, head teachers, principals, board of trustees need to be sacked, then do so and put competant people in their place.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
John, with all due respect, what planet are you on. For eons, governments have tried to do what your last two sentences state … and it has not worked, in fact its got worse. When you sack these people, from which magical education source do the ideal replacements come from? Well, if anywhere the neigbhbouring freakin school!!! I mean this is an important issue and failed educationalist dogma just confines more children to the scrapheap. As ive said before, I live in Western Australia were at least the Labour govt has had the guts to reject this assessment based and zoned bullcrap. They are now adopting NSW education policy. i.e what we use to have back in NZ
June 20th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
frederico.
Wasn’t suggesting it would be easy, but all children should expect to get the same standard of education, ie the best possible.
i am not specifically against zoning as my daughter went through Avondale Collage at the time Phil Raffels was principal, but zoning does not help all schools.
Phil expected all of his charges to succeed and worked towards that. His type of attitude is what is needed from all Principals, Teachers, etc.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:14 am
JOhn D
Not often I agree with you but perhaps a first step would be to apply those principles to the Dept of Education and its Minister – judge by results only with the judges – parents and employers.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:18 am
John,
agree totally. I think we are fundamentally at cross purposes and that is part of the problem. I went to a state school but i worked personally to a very high standard and had a handful of good teachers, my father in law (who I adore) went to avondale college, and is now highly successful. Small case studies I know, but the sooner politics gets out of good education the better. I think we have to acknowledge that there is a crisis in eduction and deal with it in a cross partisan fashion. If the left dont realise this …then its money for jam for the centre right….not that Im complaining
June 21st, 2007 at 6:09 am
So what’s National’s policy? Or do they have one?
June 21st, 2007 at 6:17 am
The Eucation Ministry is proposing to actually reduce the zone of the school. Here’s a press release:
http://www.act.org.nz/time_for_education_ministry_to_butt_out
June 21st, 2007 at 7:06 am
And if I remember correctly, when there was no zoning, the groups that mostly moved their kids from their local schools to “better” schools were Maori and PIs. They voted with their feet.
DPF said
“but tuckshop supervisor,”
No offence David, but that would explain a lot.
June 21st, 2007 at 8:07 am
but all children should expect to get the same standard of education, ie the best possible.
Only if you’re a communist!
the sooner politics gets out of good education the better.
Right. And there is only one way to do that. Simply abolish the ministry of education, incorporate every school as a business with the principal as CEO and board as, well, board – vest them their property and let them get on with the job.
In this case, well Island Bay school can simply charge more than Beramphore school. Nuff said.
June 21st, 2007 at 8:07 am
Furniture is easily moved and most classrooms are prefabs so why not move the “spare capacity” to the school where it is needed?
But does that reduce the size of the “donor school” and thus the ranking of the headmaster etc? Tough shit. It could be the thin end of the performance pay wedge.
June 21st, 2007 at 8:36 am
I understand why zoning has been put in place but I am not a fan of it. It often means that parents are forced to place their children in schools they do not desire, often because they can not afford to live in the zone for the “better schools”.
Most people who know know that I intend to send my children to private schools. I can live where I want and not have to worry about zoning … but waiting lists are almost as bad, and even worse that some public schools are also using a waiting list system.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:28 am
Brian S – in fact at school I was probably the skinniest kid in existence. So your assumptions are wrong.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:29 am
Brian S – in fact at school I was probably the skinniest kid in existence. So your assumptions are wrong.
I was too David. But there must have been a genetic predisposition there someehere. Certainly was the case with me.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Nothing will change until as others have said we treat education like any other product and apply the same disciplines The fact is unless a teacher is a convicted axe murderer there is no way the bloody teachers Union will allow them to be sacked. The Union have dumbed down the level to the extent that we have teachers who cant read write or add up and these morons are teaching children. Break the Union control set the schools up to compete for students and watch the standard rise. Otherwise be prepared for dumb dumb and dumber kids.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:55 pm
And on that theme gd, Bradford’s suggested PM Bill to lower the voting age , if drawn and passed, would really give fertile ground to the teacher’s union and the education curriculum to promote ideas sympathetic to the left.
June 21st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Don’t know what you are all moaning about, the Ministry of Education shrank our school our of existence. The school was preforming well, had great teachers, high parent participation and a steady role. Probably why the fucking socialists wanted it shut. While my kids like their new school the standard of education is not as good with more emphasis on the looney ideals that are the bread and butter of the left.
June 21st, 2007 at 4:42 pm
“The school was preforming well, had great teachers, high parent participation and a steady role. Probably why the fucking socialists wanted it shut.”
Which is why very few teachers, once a mainstay, will be voting labour next election (or last).
June 21st, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Is it true (as was overheard at the Chocolate Fish) David that your Alma Mater is so popular precisely because of your earlier attendance – or is it that you could not possibly comment on such matters!
June 21st, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Island Bay Primary School should instead be asked if they will takeover the running of the worst-performing adjacent primary school, in the hope that whatever they’ve done for themselves, they can do for the other school. This principle should be used throughout the urban areas; Let “Centres of Excellence” expand to swallow their neighbours. It’s really just like opening a new campus.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:36 pm
What’s wrong with choice, or rather, how many children does the state have to sacrifice at underperforming schools “waiting” for the education to be at a mythical uniform best standard?
If funding followed pupils the incentive to react to underperforming teachers and other staff would be enormous – schools would find that one day they don’t have enough pupils to be viable and would go under, with other schools taking over.
It’s an incredible system this, it ensures that nobody starves and everyone is clothed – it’s called freedom, and the main opponents are the teachers’ unions who think that their profession is so “special” that nobody can judge them on their performance.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Our local school is Selwyn College – in the news recently for it’s ongoing dismal performance in the core business of education. Unfortunalty, the only option is Selwyn or private schools – there is no other alternative. The closest other school (Glendowie) is out of zone, and is at bursting point and not taking any more. Unlike the 30% or so of parents in our area who opt to go private, we don’t have that choice, having already paid for education via taxes.
The worst part is that Selwyn has 25% spare capacity and no zoning restrictions- because no one wants to send their kids there. What does that tell you? The community which it is supposed to serve does not have a say in the school at all – only thise who go there are able to have a say, and by definition, they agree with the school direction.
Still, might have moved to Australia as an economic refugee before it becomes a problem anyway.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Our local school is Selwyn College – in the news recently for it’s ongoing dismal performance in the core business of education. Unfortunalty, the only option is Selwyn or private schools – there is no other alternative. The closest other school (Glendowie) is out of zone, and is at bursting point and not taking any more. Unlike the 30% or so of parents in our area who opt to go private, we don’t have that choice, having already paid for education via taxes.
The worst part is that Selwyn has 25% spare capacity and no zoning restrictions- because no one wants to send their kids there. What does that tell you? The community which it is supposed to serve does not have a say in the school at all – only thise who go there are able to have a say, and by definition, they agree with the school direction.
Still, might have moved to Australia as an economic refugee before it becomes a problem anyway.