Enrolments soar as students head back to school

Wednesday, 31 January 2024

Canterbury high schools are reporting record enrolments as thousands of students head back to classrooms this week.

The region’s two fastest growing schools have surpassed Ministry of Education student roll predictions for this year by over 100, while the third fastest shows no sign of slowing down.

Amid relatively consistent wider Christchurch roll numbers in the past few years, those of Hillmorton High School, Rolleston College and Te Aratai College have soared.

The new term has also seen other schools buck their downward trends.

Hillmorton principal Ann Brokenshire said she has about 1330 students enrolled this term, well above the Ministry of Education provisional roll of 1211.

The school is now well on the way to doubling its 2018 student population of 764, an increase which stretches school resources.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Brokenshire said, though she added that it “puts a real strain on rooming for specialist subjects like physical education”.

In addition to the 140-student increase on 2023’s roll, Hillmorton has seen a resurgence in overseas enrolments, with about 45 international students not counted in Ministry of Education figures.

A new gym is still being built, which will provide more classrooms and space for the expanding school population.

Brokenshire attributed the tremendous growth to “a huge amount of housing” built in the school’s zone and its improving reputation.

Rolleston College principal Rachel Skelton said her school had also already surpassed the ministry’s provisional roll of 1662, and predicted it would reach about 1800.

But she said the difference was not a concern as the board had long since stopped relying on the provisional roll.

“The ministry does often predict the rolls incorrectly for this area and we’re confident in our growth, so we’ve staffed to the level we believe we will be at.”

Rolleston College is in the fastest growing town in New Zealand, and already one of the largest schools on the Mainland after opening to year 9 students in 2017.

As such, construction of a second campus is under way and the first stage - two major buildings and some modular classrooms - should be complete by mid-2025.

The new campus will sit on the corner of Springston Rolleston Rd and Selwyn Rd, about 2km from the main Rolleston College.

In the meantime Skelton said the school is “managing all right”, with extensions of the current campus to be completed this year.

Skelton said she did not expect the booming roll to slow, as more people move into the surrounding area.

Maria Lemalie, principal of Te Aratai College in Linwood, said her school’s growth was also due to an influx of people into its zone.

Lemalie said old houses in the area were often demolished and replaced with a apartments housing multiple families.

“Because of the zoning, they are entitled to attend the kura.”

Te Aratai’s roll grew by 318 students between 2018 and 2023, and Lemalie said she expected another 80 this year would bring the roll to more than 1100.

Last week, the school’s reception had been “like a busy bus station”, she said, and queues at the uniform shop were out the door.

“The applications for enrolments are still coming in, they’re just constant.”

“I would say an extra couple of buildings would be greatly appreciated.”

Bucking the downward trend

Preliminary numbers show a handful of Canterbury schools have started to reverse their downward student number trends, including Haeata Community Campus, Darfield High School and Rangiora High School.

Haeata principal Peggy Burrows forecast a roll of 600 this year after the school (Years 1 to 13) had its number drop by nearly 200 students in the five years to 2023, from 744 in 2018 to 552 last year.

Burrows attributed the decline to a bad reputation and zone issues, as the campus sits near empty red zone land and competes for students with Avonside Girls’ and Shirley Boys’ High School.

Darfield High School is likewise starting to climb out of a population dip, with more than 840 students predicted for 2024 - potentially returning close to its 2018 roll of 858.

Principal Andy England said the original dip was due to rezoning when Rolleston College opened. Now the sudden growth is posing a problem, as the school was only built for 800 students.

Of the current students, about 100 are from out-of-zone, a figure Darfield will be trimming to balance out its in-zone increases, he said.

“For this year I think we will be OK, but we certainly have a looming pressure point.

“We think somewhere around that 900 mark there’s a sweet spot where we can offer a wide range of courses and still know everyone, but it is just really hard to predict.”

England said something he plans to maintain as Darfield grows is its “rural character”.

Rangiora High School saw a dip of around 100 students in recent years, but with a 2024 roll of around 1750 students, 400 of whom are year 9, the number of students is no longer a concern.

Covid-19 had an impact on student numbers, principal Bruce Kearney said, as many parents home-schooled their children.

Now the roll is on the rise as families with young children move into the region, he said, and as the only secondary school in the area it cannot simply reduce its roll.

The high school has room to grow, however, with a campus that can fit around 2000 students if prefab buildings are used.

“The reality is Canterbury is a great place to live, and people are seeing that and they’re moving here.”

Last year, 100,864 students from year 1 to 13+ were recorded in the Canterbury region.