THE HUTT NEWS – 31 JANUARY 2006

Maungaraki School sets zone, seeks extra space

With its roll continuing to grow,  Maungaraki School has introduced an enrolment scheme.

Its zone essentially follows the borders of the western hills suburb and, for term one 2006 at least, no out of zone enrolments are being considered.

Despite the roll restriction the Principal, John Western, says two or three more classrooms may be needed in the near future.

The school has blossomed in the last few years.   When Mr Western started there three years ago the roll was 136.  Current capacity is 208, but the school will get underway for 2006 next week with 198 pupils and 48 enrolments already on the books for later in the year.

The Hutt Valley’s network of schools is a mixed bag in terms of capacity – some are bulging and have enrolment schemes to stop too much pressure on facilities; others are running at under capacity.  Mr Western says putting in place an enrolment scheme is a requirement before the Ministry will consider requests for extra classrooms.

Several new sub-divisions, anecdotal evidence from Plunket and kindergartens that Maungaraki families are having more babies and perhaps a trend of some retired folk moving to other parts of the region and families moving into the hill suburb are factors in the growing roll, Mr Western says.

But it’s also true that teaching practices at the school are attracting parents’  - and other educators’ - attention.   That goes beyond the press reports about the innovative way Maungaraki School uses information and communication technology (the Hutt News has carried a number of articles about Maungaraki School pupils’ use of digital cameras, editing software and teleconferencing with overseas schools).   Mr Western says the school has good literacy and numeracy programmes – “but then so do many other schools in the Hutt Valley.”

What does set it apart is a teaching system Mr Western describes as “ecology of learning” – a thinking skills programme that runs across all areas of the curriculum, integrates ICT and is carefully tailored to the way pupils’ learn and want to learn,” to make sure it is authentic for them.”

The school is also strong in arts and music – last year pupils were lobbying for the start of a rock orchestra. 

Representatives of some 15-20 other schools visited to see these programes in action last year, Mr Western says.

Even when families move out of Maungaraki, they tend to prefer for their children to continue to travel to the school.  Mr Western says there are still 28 pupils on the roll from out of Maungaraki, some of whom travel from as far as Raumati, Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata.

While he wants to make early progress on getting more classrooms to prevent crowding, he says he won’t settle for “nasty little boxes”.    Any extra facilities need to be carefully planned to “ensure they meet the needs of the next 20 years, not the past 20 years”.