This afternoon our Board of Trustees had its first meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Education following CERA's land announcements. To cut a long story short there is a long way to go before the Ministry will make any decisions about how education will be provided on the East side of Christchurch. My read of the situation is that:
- You can feel comfortable that Freeville School will continue to be open for the foreseeable future.
- Decisions that are made in the future will not take effect for a considerable period of time.
- The Ministry of Education view us as a high performing school and they value the quality of education and care that we provide.
Tomorrow is roll count day and the Ministry will work out our staffing for 2012 based on the number of children that we have at our school. Despite all that we have been through and the number of children who have moved in and out of the school at various times since February 22nd, we will have 291 children on our roll. This time last year we had 302, so we are pretty close to last year's number; far closer than many other local schools.
While it needs to be confirmed by the Ministry, I feel optimistic that our staffing and our school budget for next year will be reasonably similar to what we have had this year. This is good news for all of us as we can look ahead with some comfort to 2012 knowing that we are in a strong position in comparison with many schools in our area.
So.........
YES - we will be here next year.
YES - tell your friends to enrol their new entrants at our school.
YES - our Year 6 parents can feel comfortable about their children progressing through to Year 7 & 8 at Freeville School.
YES - even if you move out of our zone you can continue to bring your child to Freeville.
If you have any concerns or worries about your child's education and what may or may not happen please make a time to come and see me. I am very happy to talk things through with you.
Kind regards and best wishes.
John
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