“A report recently released by the Education Review Office (ERO) highlights that some of our most vulnerable learners are in classrooms that are in a terrible condition,” Stanford said.
“I was horrified to learn about the unacceptable state of specialist school property and the long wait lists of more than 650 children, following significant under-investment in maintenance and growth.”
She also mentioned that her specialist school’s work programme was part of the Government’s six education priorities in order to ensure children get access to critical services.
Stanford announced $63m in depreciation funding would be put aside to upgrade specialist schools in poor condition, and a further $26m in capital funding to deliver additional capacity.
Part of the $26m put aside will be spent in the Far North where Bay of Islands College will host two new classrooms.
Currently, Blomfield Special School has classrooms dotted across the north but none to cater to secondary-school-aged students in the mid-north.
“We’re absolutely delighted with the announcement and quite relieved for our whanāu in the mid-north as we did not have anywhere our current satellite students in the primary sector were going to go on to,” Wilkinson said.
She said it offers more choices to parents with neurodiverse teenagers who may benefit from a special school.
“A lot of parents [have been] finding it really difficult to find educational settings in the mid-north once students are growing into the teenage years.”
Wilkinson believed Blomfield’s classrooms placed at Bay of Islands College would complement the programmes already run there.
The $64m funding will cover upgrades to existing classrooms across the country.
Oromahoe School, Kamo High School, Morningside Primary School, Kaitāia Primary School, Manaia View School and Kaitāia College act as hosts for Blomfield, but many of these are not fully accessible.
“We’ve been wanting a better alternative for quite some time. It’s really limiting the number of students we can support,” Wilkinson said.
“[With] the age of the buildings, they’re not set up to be fully accessible. We really appreciate the host schools doing everything they can, but they’re also getting overcrowded.”
An ERO report released last week said that many specialist schools across the country were filled to the brim - something Wilkinson confirmed.
Next year’s roll is already full, and the following year was filling up fast, she said.
It is vital for students to feel valued within their learning space, and upgraded buildings would achieve that.
“They feel valued and they feel cared for, and it’s one less distraction.”
“This is a place that our students feel they really belong.”
Brodie Stone is an education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.
