Ross Preece Ashburton College Principal.Ashburton College has had an unexpected roll blow-out of 50 students as it starts the 2019 school year.

That’s significantly up on the Ministry of Education’s predictions, principal Ross Preece said, and while it’s great news for the college, it does come with its own problems.

“It’s fantastic but we’re staffed on what the ministry allowed.

“The extra staffing the ministry will cover but not until the end of term one,” he said.

And that means the college has had to juggle class numbers to accommodate the roll growth.

While Year 9 ratios will remain at 1:25, Year 10 could lift to 1:28 or 1:30.

Roll growth had come across all years and Preece is attributing some of the extra numbers to the excellent ERO report the school received last year and to the breadth of subjects it had on offer.

Extra students inevitably meant extra teachers, and based on anticipated numbers, Preece said he had just completed his last appointment for the new year.

Once a returning Kiwi teacher living in England joined the staff in two or three weeks, the school would be fully staffed, he said.

“Staffing is always an inexact science.

“We advertised three times for a science teacher but there was no-one suitable.

“Then we advertised over the Christmas break and we got 12 applicants.”

A low number of applicants for advertised positions was common around the district, Preece said, but principals generally managed to find good staff.

That was not the case in many parts of New Zealand where schools advertised vacancies and received no suitable applicants.

By Sue Newman© The Ashburton Guardian - 4 February 2019