ERO lacks confidence in charter school

A report on a controversial Northland charter school given a one-month lifeline this week outlines a strong lack of confidence in the kura, while other documents criticised its leadership.

The Education Review Office (ERO) report on Te Kura Hourua ki Whangaruru was dated September 2014 but was withheld to allow the kura more time to address issues.

The kura - renamed Te Pumanawa o te Wairua in December - was one of five charter schools, or partnership schools, to open last year as part of National's confidence and supply agreement with Act.

Located on a 81ha farm about 65km north of Whangarei, it was set up as a secondary school particularly targeting Maori students on the margins of mainstream education.

On Friday Minister of Education Hekia Parata issued the kura with 28 days to address the issues before an audit after which she would decide its future. If it did not address the issues, documents showed it could close as early as May.

The board of the Nga Parirau Matauranga Charitable Trust, which sponsors the kura, could not be contacted by edition time and a media release dated Saturday said the school was not closing.

"You can all be reassured that the school continues with business as usual on Monday and going forward," the release said.

While the ERO report acknowledged the "whole hearted commitment" of those involved with the school, it reflected an overall strong lack of confidence. "ERO is not confident in the school's capacity to address concerns without substantial support," the report said. "There is a high level of risk because there are no robust mechanisms for making any progress."

There were six key issues outlined in the report: quality of teaching and learning, quality of management, variable implementation of leadership roles, disengaged students, difficultly of recruiting suitable staff and lack of business expertise.

During ERO visits at least a third of students were absent, while data showed the rate of truancy was 11 to 17 per cent despite the fact the contract said it had to be 2.8 per cent.

A report from MOE head of sector enablement and support Katrina Casey to Ms Parata on February 5 outlined school leadership as the biggest issue: "The ongoing issues present at the school are directly attributed to the quality of the leadership and management running the school." Provisional NCEA data showed that only 24 per cent of students achieved level one, when the contract required 80.9 per cent. And just 30 per cent had achieved level two, when the contract required 66.9 per cent.

Ms Casey confirmed the kura's new contract had a minimum roll of 40 students, though the funding level remained unclear.

Last year the kura was funded for 71, despite never reaching higher than about 60. The kura started this year with 37 students.

PPTA president Angela Roberts said: "The frustrating thing is that the school has had significant support from the ministry since it opened in a way that I have never seen from a state school in trouble."

Labour's Education spokesman Chris Hipkins said the ERO report proved that the school should never have been approved in the first place.

"This report identifies problems with absenteeism and disengaged students and found the school's board received numerous official complaints from parents concerned about health and safety issues," Mr Hipkins said.

"It found the relationships between governance and management were 'dysfunctional at times'.

"Hekia Parata must be held to account for approving the opening of this school despite official advice warning her not to," he said.