Increasing pressure on school rolls in Nelson has meant that two city primary schools will be introducing enrolment zones early next year, with one principal saying that they are already “over capacity.”
Both Hampden St School and Nelson Central School are in the process of confirming their ‘home zone maps,’ which will mean that they will only take new enrolments from within that zone if their roll is full, or close to it.
Hampden St School principal Don McLean says that his school is “chock-a-block,” with 517 children currently enrolled, and is already turning away new enrolments for next year from families who are likely to be out of the zone, such as the Victory area.
“We just haven’t got the space for more kids,” he says. “It’s not ideal, because I like the idea of parents having choice.”
The school, which is also building two new classrooms to cope with demand, is in the process of negotiating the zone boundaries with the Ministry of Education and is hoping to have everything confirmed during term one.
“We’ve made a proposed map of where we think the zone should be, so we know what areas we can turn away at the moment,” says Don.
“We have sent the map to the Ministry and should hopefully have it back within the next week, then we’ll send it to other schools for approval, and then there will be consultation with parents.”
Nelson Central School, which has a current roll of 470 students, is also working towards putting an enrolment zone in place, due to high numbers.
“The stage we are at is that we have done a lot of research and we have consulted with our community and local schools,” says principal Pip Wells. “Now we’re just waiting for final data from the Ministry before we can put it in place.”
Pip says they are currently telling new enrolments outside of the proposed zone, which is likely to overlap with Hampden St School’s zone, that there are “no guarantees” of getting a place at the school.
“The whole idea of the enrolment scheme is to manage the roll, and it’s only used when there are high numbers,” she says. “If we are not really stretched we can take people outside the zone, but at the moment we are close to capacity, so we need to look forward and make sure we have a mechanism in place.”
Both principals say that they are hoping they can make exceptions for younger siblings of students who are already enrolled at the schools.
“We want to be fair to our families and keep them together,” says Don. “If we can’t, then to me, that’s legislation gone mad.”
But both principals say that even with enrolment zones in place, it’s not going to solve the problem long-term, and that it’s likely that other city schools will eventually have to zone too, such as Victory, Auckland Point, and Clifton Terrace.
“We’re full, Central is nearly full, and every other school is nearly full,” says Don. “There are lots of people moving down from Auckland and people still coming up from Christchurch.
“Where are the kids going to go? We need to look at our whole network of schools and the population pattern.”
More information on the zone boundaries will be available from the schools soon, once they have been confirmed with the ministry of education.
