Ross Preece Ashburton College principalA surge in enrolments at Ashburton College has put pressure on teaching space and teaching resources, says principal Ross Preece.

While most schools anticipate their roll for the year will exceed Ministry of Education estimates, the extra 65 students enrolled at the college this year was certainly at the upper end, he said.

A growing roll was a good problem for any school, but it did come with problems in terms of accommodating the extra pupils, Preece said.

“It’s certainly a pleasing start to the year but in some cases we’ve had to accommodate these students by making some classes larger than we’d like.

“There’s definitely not too many free rooms around the school now.”

The extra students were spread across all years.

While the ministry would fund the school to employ additional staff, recruitment would come with its own challenges, he said.

The pool of teachers looking for new positions was never large and at the start of a new school year most would have found jobs, Preece said.

The roll surge comes at the same time as the school has introduced a new pastoral care system, Ako,  that puts students into vertical age groups of around 16 – 20 with one staff member assigned to each group.

These replace traditional family forms and are designed to create a ‘family’ group across all ages that a student will remain in during their time at college.

Staff had just completed a full day of interviews for the Ako groups and parents he had spoken to after those interviews were very positive about the system, Preece said.

“I talked to a number of parents as they were leaving and there wasn’t one who wasn’t complimentary about the process.

“Staff went above and beyond during the long day of interviews and say it was an unfailingly positive experience.”

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 8 March 2019