School takes heart from roll growth

Longford Intermediate School has recorded a 30 per cent increase in the number of pupils attending the school this year, an indication the school has worked its way through several years of Education Review Office (Ero) compliance problems, school principal Keith McKenzie says.

The school roll stood at 175 and early indications showed the number might rise to more than 200 next year, Mr McKenzie said.

Leadership and organisational issues were at the heart of the first Ministry of Education intervention in 2007, which resulted in a manager being assigned to the school, Mr McKenzie said.

Last year the manager was removed because the board and staff had demonstrated the school was "back on track", he said.

The latest Ero report, published in June, showed the school had made vast improvements and there were only minimal changes needed, such as more work on a school charter and strategic plan.

Since June, the school and board of trustees had worked on a comprehensive strategic plan which was approved by the Ministry of Education, Mr McKenzie said.

"The board, principal and staff have made a number of improvements since 2008 [and] relationships between the new principal, the board and the teachers are positive," Education Review Office area manager Isabell Sinclair Irwin said in the report.

"It's not a bad report considering the journey the school has been on. We've made pretty good progress," Mr McKenzie said.

However, Mr McKenzie said the school would not have been able to change its fortunes so quickly if it had not had excellent support from the community.

"We've got to have community support. The school community and the community have been incredibly supportive of us."

"They want this school to succeed and want to be part of it," he said.

Staff changes had also brought a new dynamic to the school, which had helped strengthen the teaching base.

The Ero report pointed to a need for teachers to receive extra training in areas such as numeracy and that had been completed, Mr McKenzie said.

The report said poor behaviour of some pupils impacted on the learning of others.

However, Mr McKenzie said that problem was one that was common in most schools.

The school worked with the pupils involved, their families and other social agencies in order to improve behaviour and address problems, he said.

If pupils continued to be disruptive they were stood down.

Two pupils had been stood down this week, he said.

Board of trustees chairman David Barton said standing down was a last resort.

He said the level of intervention from the ministry was now at its lowest level, which showed the school was well on its way to achieving its goals.

Because Longford only catered for two years in a pupil's schooling, attracting board members was difficult, he said.

He urged parents of prospective pupils to consider standing for the board of trustees before their children started at the school.