Newsletter – 27 October 2020 – Pakuranga Heights School

It has been a very busy fortnight with the completion of the shade area and the middle school playground. The children are very excited with the addition of soccer and basketball posts.

Wonderful to see most children wearing sun hats as the weather is certainly starting to warm up. The elections are now over and Labour the clear winner, so what exactly have they promised to do in primary school education.

.• $200m a year for free lunches for all children at the most disadvantaged quarter of schools by the end of next year.

• $400m over four years to reform the school system including creating an Education Services Agency within the Ministry of Education, setting up an independent complaints system, strengthening governance and leadership, establishing a Curriculum Centre, a more managed approach to approving new ECE centres and expanding the network of Maori language schools.

• $320m over four years to replace the current decile-based school funding system with a new system based on an “equity index” measuring the social backgrounds of all students in all schools.

• $15m over four years to “make sure schools in all our communities are able to deliver quality online learning to all their students if we have another [Covid-19] outbreak”.

• $10m over four years to “develop tools to better understand children and young people’s learning progress”

It will be an interesting three years.

School Zoning in 2022

Next year we will be starting the school zone process to be in place for the 2022 school year. We did not ask for a zone rather the Ministry is imposing school zones on all schools in Auckland. Next year Elm Park School, Riverhills School, Riverena School and Anchorage Park School will also be going through the same process.

The basics

A school with an enrolment scheme has a home zone, which is a geographically defined area around the school.

Students living inside the zone will be guaranteed a place at the school.
Students who live outside the zone can apply to enrol but acceptance of their application is subject to places being available for them – and if there are fewer places available than there are applicants, their acceptance is subject to the outcome of a pre-enrolment process called a ballot.
If your child/ren are already here, they are entitled to stay.
No zones have been decided yet as this is part of the consultation process. More information will be sent out next year once we start the process

After School Traffic

It is now incredibly busy after school especially since Covid-19.

You can help by parking away from the gate and walking to school to pick up your child or arrange a prearranged place for them to meet you. A number of parents are doing this and it works really well.

If you are in the pickup zone, unless you are in a carpark must not leave your car unattended.

A little consideration and patience goes a long way. Together we can try to improve this. We will also ask the police to come and give some advice about possible solutions.

Thank you

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