Executive Summary from Amesbury School's Recapitation Application

Section 1: Executive Summary

• Amesbury School is applying to become a full primary (year 1 – 8) school for the beginning of 2014.
• Amesbury School has a very well informed community. This application is in response to an extremely high level of parental demand to have the opportunity to continue Amesbury’s brand of 21^st century learning through to year 8.
• Although it is a new school, Amesbury School believes it is ready for this extension of its year levels. It has a high calibre staff a number of who have had significant experience in teaching year 7/8 students.
• Its curriculum is already extensive and catering for students working at year 7/8 and beyond. Therefore, with the addition of technology, careers education and aspects of the health urriculum, the Amesbury Curriculum is ready to meet the needs of this particular cohort of students.
• There is now very compelling evidence that the transition from year 6 (or elementary school) to intermediate or middle schools is a highly problematic transition and has a much greater negative impact than the later transition from full primary to high school. This is an opportunity to minimise the number of transitions our students experience.
•  Amesbury School is taking very seriously the Ministry’s mandate to develop “deep” or “transformative” personalisation of learning. Recapitation is an opportunity for the ministry to support the innovative work being done by Amesbury School through to year 7/8 and benefit from the dissemination of the school’s experiences.
•  In the recapitation of Amesbury School there is an opportunity to enhance the local education network through the diversification of the educational opportunities available within it.
• There is also a further opportunity to create enhanced educational benefits and community good for the Amesbury community by enabling a year 1 – 8 community school. Further, remaining in the community is a more sustainable option for the provision of year 7/8 schooling.
•  Amesbury School is an effective school. This is the finding of a recent Education Review Office Report. It has high quality teaching, genuine personalisation of learning and highly effective self-review processes which ensure that it continues to grow and develop and improve what it does.
•  A number of objections to the recapitation proposal have been articulated by the three schools considered most likely to be affected. These include:

i.                     Whether Amesbury School is really so different from them in the way it delivers curriculum and organises learning and, therefore, can recapitation be justified.

ii.                   Whether it is equitable for Amesbury School zoned families to have an extra year 7/8 option.

iii.                  The history of Churton Park and the potential for recapitation to be divisive.

iv.                 Consultation took place to determine Amesbury School as a year 1 – 6 school. Why should the original decision be changed now?

v.                   The lack of a robust discussion about year 7/8 education in an intermediate school versus year 7/8 education in a full primary or middle school.

•   However, none of these objections relate to the matters of most concern to the ministry – impact on school rolls, impact on resourcing, ability to provide technology, impact on transport, the level of support for the proposal from the school community and the current effectiveness of the school.
•   Amesbury School intends enrolling only year 7/8 students from within its zone and request that zones remain as they currently are with Amesbury School having an overlapping zone with Raroa Intermediate.