Catholic school rolls - like those of other Christian schools - are bursting in Christchurch. They're seen as "desirable" schools.

Under pressure

The Catholic Diocese across Christchurch has over 7000 students. Besides these, non-Catholic Christian schools account for about 3500.

The difficulty is, the Catholic diocese's 35 primary and secondary schools are at 91 percent of their maximum roll capacity.

Hundreds of potential students apply to attend these schools but miss out.

Several Christian schools across Canterbury are also near capacity; four have applied to the Ministry of Education to increase their student rolls.

Fixed allocations remain

Catholic school manager Mike Nolan said Christchurch diocese schools would not be increasing places available for non-Catholic students.

Parents who are non-practising Catholics were welcome to apply, but would be restricted to the five percent "non-religious" allocation.

"All people are always welcome to join us, wherever people find themselves in their faith journey" Nolan said.

Faith wins a place

In many cases, families have to provide evidence of their faith practice if they are to secure a place for their children at their Christian school of choice.

Depending on the school, applicants may need to produce statements of faith, preference certificates (effectively an endorsement from the church), letters from priests confirming church attendance and testifying that they will uphold the Christian character of the school.

Some anonymous Facebook posts from parents confess that they baptised their children to increase the chances of being offered a place at a desirable Catholic primary school.

Others offer tips about which primary schools feed into the best Catholic high schools.

University of Canterbury sociology professor Mike Grimshaw said it was "well known" that non-practising Catholic parents were rediscovering the value of their dormant faith, if that could open the door to certain schools.

"Most of these parents are not necessarily interested in a religious education, but are buying a non-state education."

He said Christian schools offer a cheaper version of a private education while the state school system is not providing the required ethos, teaching, standards, student cohort and outcomes.

Choose the closest school

Families should attend the closest Catholic school to their homes, Nolan said.

The Ministry of Education supports this view, with recent changes to legislation saying siblings of current students no longer have the right to enrol at a school if they don't live in the local area.

Changes to the so-called "grandparenting" clause were to provide a fair and transparent process for enrolment where there is more demand than there are places, the Ministry says.

Catholic diocese and Christian schools applied an "area of reasonable convenience" which should encourage families to choose the closest religious school.

"In our Catholic school context, parish boundaries and the Catholic primary schools within those parish boundaries provide a mechanism for ensuring this principle is met" Nolan said.

Source

• The Press

Like Roncalli College, Craighead Diocesan is a special character school. And like Roncalli, Craighead has had to close its books to new enrolments for 2025 having reached its roll capacity.

Enough's enough

Roncalli College principal Chris Comeau says the Catholic co-ed school's 520-student roll cap has been reached for 2025.

"The number is consistent with previous years but we have had to decline more applications this year due to lack of capacity" he says.

Comeau says he thinks the increase in demand is due to new families moving into the region, as well as a desire for Catholic education.

In his view it's unlikely that the roll capacity would increase any time soon.

"The only way we would be able to accept more students is if we were granted a roll increase. However, that is unlikely to happen.

"I think we are at the right size."

Room to grow

Timaru's Craighead Diocesan School has not only closed enrolments for 2025, but was directed by the Ministry of Education to reduce its over-subscribed roll.

But it could grow a bit more, principal Lara Hearn-Rollo says.

"We have a roll cap of 380 but we are currently over that cap."

Hearn-Rollo says Craighead is managing reducing the roll at entry points like year 7 and 9. But it's not easy.

"It's really hard [to turn girls away]. Under our enrolment scheme it often means we cannot bring in new families to the school, particularly at year 9."

The school was 20-30 students over capacity.

Hearn-Rollo doesn't see that as an issue. "We've got the capacity. Our auditorium would take 450 and when we look at our buildings the capacity is 450.

"If you've got those bigger numbers it does allow you to have more in the way of options you can offer."

Source

• ODT

There's been a steady increase in roll numbers, according to the Ministry of Education.

Immigrants boost school rolls

An immigration-driven surge in enrolments is adding to the pressure. The national school roll is now topping 831,038 children.

In Invercargill, Catholic co-ed Verdon College has reached its maximum enrolment number.

The school must hold spots for preference pupils, says principal Jarlath Kelly (pictured).

"It's been a bit tricky for us and we've had to turn people away - and we're just trying to hold on to places for our preference students, being a Catholic school."

Verdon College has many pupils from immigrant families which has been positive for the school, Kelly says.

"A lot of our new-to-New Zealand families are from the Philippines and we have a very vibrant and thriving Filipino community. We have done for some years so that's another positive for us."

The school welcomes new New Zealanders. Communication is eased by employing staff who can speak various languages.

Other Southland secondary principals are also reporting increasing school rolls.

This is borne out by the Ministry of Education's provisional rolls for Otago and Southland in 2024, which show a one percent increase. That's the equivalent of 486 children, according to provisional rolls for 2023.

Southland Secondary Principals Association chairman, school principal Peter Wilkinson says he thinks some schools in Southland are at capacity for infrastructure and teaching staff.

Primary school rolls decline

Interestingly, Southland primary schools are seeing a slight decline in enrolment numbers.

One principal says his school saw a peak in enrolments about five years ago.

"In the last two to three years those big increases have been going off to high school ... so there is a slight decline of enrolments."

His roll is sitting at about 400 pupils at the moment and is expected to go down to 350 at the start of next year. This is likely to climb to about 430 by the end of next year.

The fluctuation may be driven by rental accommodation which often leads to transient enrolments as people live in the area for a while and then move on.

Additional ESOL funding needed

One primary principal says he has many international pupils from Columbia and, although they managed English as a Second Language (ESOL), they could always use more funding.

"We're doing all right but that's just through sheer chance and because we've got experienced staff," he says.

Source

• Otago Daily Times