Otara school caned for bad teaching

By Theresa Garner

AUCKLAND - An Otara school seeking middle-school status has been criticised for the quality of education it gives third and fourth formers.

An Education Review Office report based on a March visit says that Ferguson Intermediate is failing to provide a safe emotional and physical environment, and that the social and academic potential of students is limited by strict discipline and inadequate teaching practices.

Ferguson Intermediate has applied to become an official middle school, enrolling form one to four pupils.

The ERO report comes as a forum of Otara school boards prepares a recommendation to the Ministry of Education over the future structure of Ferguson Intermediate, left undecided after a Government moratorium on middle-school changes.

The school's unit of 200 third and fourth-form students, 99 per cent of whom are Maori or Pacific Islanders, opened in 1997 as an attached unit to Clover Park Middle School. That arrangement has ceased and it now operates as an attached unit to Papakura High School.

Although responsibility for day-to-day running belongs to the Ferguson Intermediate board, the Papakura High board has ultimate responsibility.

The chairman of the Papakura board of trustees, Jim Frear, said he had taken on board the comments.

"I think a lot of people are tuned in to the fact that ERO reports aren't necessarily reality."

The principal of Ferguson Intermediate, Jenny Leach, said the school had a plan to deal with the ERO concerns. But it did not agree with all the criticism, and major issues like curriculum had been brought up to standard.

The school had difficulty attracting staff to work in an attached unit, she said, because they could get only one-year contracts.

The ERO report said the school had unknowingly employed a teacher whose licence had been revoked last year, and needed to review its appointments procedures.

Rapid roll growth had put extreme demands on facilities and staffing, and had badly affected the quality of education.

The mainly overseas teachers were failing to cover major aspects of the curriculum. Students were often unaware of the purpose of lessons, and exams showed no clear links to national objectives.

Reviewers raised concerns over teachers' "language, severity of body language and constant reprimands."

Students were forced to sit in class lines outside for 15 minutes at morning break and lunchtime. "This leaves inadequate time for informal social interaction or physical activity."

Middle schools have been controversial in Otara because of tensions with high schools like Hillary College. But the principal of Hillary College, Robin Staples, yesterday released a statement saying he and principals of the other Otara schools that catered for third and fourth formers were "working together."

Other ERO reports praise Otara's Clover Park Middle School, but say Bairds Intermediate, which runs a unit attached to Clover Park, is providing "variable" learning programmes.