Healthy lunches announcement leaves schools confused
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
The latest announcement on the future of the Healthy School Lunches Programme has left North Canterbury schools feeling confused.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced last week the revised Ka Ora, Ka Ako/Healthy School Lunches programme would save $130 million.
It was revealed the new $3 lunches will apply to all schools and year levels already in the scheme, which left principals scratching their heads.
Earlier this year, the Government had indicated year 0 to 6 students would continue under the existing scheme, while year 7 to 13 students would be part of the new programme.
But Seymour said an agreement had been reached with the Government's preferred suppliers to offer the $3 lunches across all age groups.
The present budget is $8.68 per student.
‘‘The programme will deliver nutritious hot and cold meals, such as butter chicken curry, chicken katsu, lasagna, chicken pasta salad and wraps,’’ Seymour said.
‘‘All students in year 0 to 8 will receive the same sized meals (240 grams) and older students will receive larger lunches (at least 300g), which will include additional items such as fruit, yoghurt or muesli bars.’’
Te Kura o Tuahiwi principal Dot Singh feared the revised programme could leave its existing provider, Lazy Lunches, out in the cold.
‘‘I am still a bit confused,’’ she said.
‘‘We were told our year 0 to 6 student lunches would stay the same and they said if you’ve got cultural needs and allergy needs you could continue what you are doing.
‘‘But now they are saying we need to go through their providers and I’m unsure how healthy those lunches are going to be.’’
Lazy Lunches was established in 2021 to provide lunches to Te Kura o Tuahiwi, when the kura joined the scheme.
It has since extended the service to provide lunches to Kaiapoi Borough School and Karanga Mai Young Parents’ College, based at Kaiapoi High School.
Kaiapoi Borough School principal Hayden van Lent said he is grateful the lunches will continue to be provided for tamariki.
‘‘We appreciate the importance of ensuring our tamariki are well fed so they have the needed energy to learn at school and keep active throughout the day.
‘‘It is difficult to know what the new model will look like until it is in practice from next year.
‘‘In the interim we are going to explore both the internal and external options to see what will be best for our tamariki.’’
Te Kura o Hāpuku, near Kaikōura, is also part of the scheme, preparing lunches onsite for its 16 tamariki and six staff.
Principal Ripeka Tamepo said the kura was set to lose more than half of its funding.
‘‘We now will have to come up with creative ways to ensure we can continue to feed our tamariki nutritious meals.
‘‘Our tamariki need this as many whānau are struggling financially and this programme eradicated kai as a barrier to education as well as promoting whanautanga (connections), manaakitanga (care for others) and healthy food education.’’
Kaiapoi Borough School’s board of trustees, Karanga Mai, Te Kura o Hāpuku and Lazy Lunches have been contacted for comment.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Teacher shortage eases in Canterbury schools
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter
After a difficult few years, North Canterbury school principals say they have plenty of quality teachers to choose from.
A global teacher shortage in recent years has seen local schools competing against Auckland principals for staff at university recruiting events.
But education advocate Simon Green said heading into term four, local primary schools were well placed ‘‘to fill their vacant positions from a good pool of quality applicants’’.
Green is the Rangiora High School board of trustees presiding member, and is a leadership adviser with Evaluation Associates, working with principals and school boards in Otago and Canterbury.
While there is a slight overall drop in primary school rolls in North Canterbury, he said more specialist structured literacy teachers were required.
Additional classroom release time for teachers meant relief teachers were also needed.
‘‘The secondary school job market remains challenging for our high school principals,’’ he said.
Rangiora High School has 22 vacancies for next year, mainly due to short term teaching positions, promotions and new opportunities opening up.
But principal Bruce Kearney said the positions are filling up fast.
The school roll is expected to close in on 1800 students next year, but Kearney said growth could begin to slow down, in the short term at least.
‘‘Our role can fluctuate depending on the rolls of our contributing schools and there is a sense we are seeing the end of a bubble.’’
Longer term that could change with new sub-divisions planned in the Waimakariri district.
‘‘We don’t want to grow much more,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘But I don’t think it would make economic sense for the Government to build a new secondary school on a new site when both Rangiora and Kaiapoi have land for more growth.
‘‘Communities may need to accept that big schools are more economical. Auckland has been managing schools of up to 3000 students for years.’’
Kearney said it was possible the Ministry of Education could build another primary school across the road from Rangiora High School, next to the school farm, in 10 years time.
Last year Kaiapoi High School had 22 vacancies to fill, but principal Jason Reid said he has just one vacancy advertised on the Education Gazette, for now.
For the first time in a decade Kaiapoi will have a slight dip in its year 9 roll for next year.
‘‘I don’t think it is indicative of anything other than a population blip,’’ Reid said.
With several contributing schools, including Woodend School and Te Kura o Tuahiwi, bursting at the seams, growth at Kaiapoi High School is set to continue for sometime yet.
For now, Reid is expecting the roll to remain at 1080 next year, just under the site capacity of 1100.
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
Hi neighbours
I'm Nadine, a reporter for Stuff and I'm wanting to do a story about the reality of the festive season for some people.
I'm wanting to talk to an older pensioner who will likely be alone at Christmas and finds it hard to get by on the pension.
Is this you? I'd love to talk to you if possible. I'd need to visit prior to Christmas and on Christmas Day, if possible.
You can email me at nadine.roberts@stuff.co.nz or leave a comment below and I can get in touch.
Thanks for reading!
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