School plans expansion

19 Sep 2024 • By Chris Gardner

While one Te Awamutu school has announced it is full, another is planning to boost its roll.

Waipa Christian School

Waipā Christian School wants permission to add secondary schooling to its portfolio.

Waipa Christian School principal Jaco Labuschagne has expansion plans

Incoming chair of the board of proprietors Phil Strong and principal Jaco Labuschagne told The News they had made an application to the Ministry of Education seeking permission to expand the state-integrated co-educational primary school roll.

The special Christian character school, in Chapel Drive, Te Awamutu, has been operating for more than 30 years and is limited to providing primary education for up to 104 Year 1 to 8 students.

Strong and Labuschagne’s application to the ministry is to lift the roll to 154 pupils and add secondary schooling for Years 9 and 10.

The Ministry of Education website says primary schools can apply to expand their year levels and change their classifications to composite schools to accommodate more pupils across different year levels.

The application comes soon after Te Awamutu College announced it had closed its doors to pupils from outside of its newly established zone – because it was forecasting a roll of more than 1450 in 2025.

Strong, who has served on the board of proprietors for eight years and is also the pastor at the Zion People church in Te Awamutu, said the Christian school was in the very early stages of preparing for growth.

Zion Church pastor Phil Strong

“We are seeing a growing need in the community, and we have asked if we can extend our facilities to meet that need,” Strong said.

Strong said the current Chapel Drive site was full of little children and had no room for teenagers. So, the hunt has begun for additional premises from which the school can eventually operate schooling for pupils in Years 7 to 10.

“As part of our application we have suggested feedback from the community who would like to have choice. We have really strong support from the community.”

In his pastoral role Strong is also working with Habitat for Humanity on an affordable housing project on Racecourse Road, another project spurned on by growth.

Before lodging its application with the ministry, Waipā Christian School consulted with Te Awamutu’s Christian community and further afield.

“We started noticing that our enrolment numbers are picking up,” Labuschagne said. “Our roll has really grown, and we are sitting at 99 students. People are just looking for a Christian education.

If its application is approved the school would look to adding Year 9 pupils in 2026 and Year 10 pupils thereafter.

“Once we have a proposal in place for this we can go back to the ministry,” he said.

The non-denominational school, which welcomes families from the Waipā and Ōtorohanga districts, is consulting with the local Christian and wider community on its plans. Waipā Christian School’s aim is to encourage pupils to become lifelong learners.

Waipā Christian School was “well placed” in achieving valued outcomes for its students, the Education Review Office said in its most recent report in 2019.