DAVID UNWIN/Stuff
Queen Elizabeth College in Palmerston North is expanding to take intermediate-age children from next year.
A Palmerston North high school says it is responding to a request from its community by starting to teach intermediate children.
Queen Elizabeth College currentlyhas a roll of about 300. But from next year that number was likely to grow as it expanded its teaching offering to include intermediate children.
It will start with one class of combined year 7 and 8 children and look to grow.
Board of trustees chairman Stefan Speller said the school had been working with the Ministry of Education on the project for the past couple of years and were given the tick of approval to do it.
“They wouldn’t do that if they didn’t think we were doing something good already. The opportunities we’re offering, we will be the first secular option for year 7 to 13 in Palmerston North. That’s pretty unique.
“It allows us another two years to get kids on board and embedded in our kaupapa of the school.”
The two other schools in the city currently teaching year 7 to 13 are St Peter’s College and Cornerstone Christian School. Cornerstone has children from year 1 to 13.
So Speller said Queen Elizabeth College would be an option for non-religious families looking for this model.
He said they came up with the idea after parents and members of the community asked them about teaching intermediate children.
“We thought ‘hang on, this could work’.”
Doing it well was now the school’s focus.
Supplied
Queen Elizabeth College board of trustees chairman Stefan Speller is excited about the change.
Some children had already enrolled, but the school expected to have about 25 intermediate children by the start of term one next year.
Principal Chris Moller and some of the teaching staff have worked at primary level and have the training, so teaching children at the younger level won’t be a problem.
The school’s high school roll was already growing, and it aimed to have about 100 intermediate age pupils in a couple of years.
The school will redeploy existing buildings for classrooms, but they have the space for more children, including two gyms and a swimming pool.
Building a playground for the younger children was something they were looking at.
Speller said they had consulted with other schools in the region and there was no feeling of competition.
Queen Elizabeth College already ran technology classes for children from nearby primary schools that are years 1 to 8.
The Ministry of Education’s acting deputy secretary for Central, Tui Rolleston, said the school applied to the ministry in 2021 for a change in classification to become a composite year 7 to 13 school.
Rolleston said the ministry then consulted with the boards of schools that could be affected and it was then approved by the Minister of Education Jan Tinetti.
The ministry is meeting with the school at the start of term four to help implement the change.
