New charter school given approval to become one of NZ's biggest schools

An online charter school that opened just nine months ago already has permission to become one of the country's biggest schools.Aotearoa Infinite Academy opened at the start of this year with 200 students, and has approval to grow to 2000 next year and 3000 in 2028.The secondary school's growth is significant because other charter schools have remained relatively small, with the largest enrolling about 150 students.A roll of 2000 would make the academy one of the 30 largest schools - and 3000 would put it in the top three to five, with government funding running to around $26 million a year.For comparison, last year Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (the Correspondence School) had 10,349 students, Rangitoto College 4081, Mt Albert Grammar 3576, Macleans College 2981, while Avondale College, Westlake Boys High and Auckland Grammar School all had more than 2700.A Charter School Agency document said a secondary charter school of 1005 students would receive $10,741 for each student, and with 2500 students, per-student funding would be $8892.The academy's website said it offered online classes with about 20 students each, teaching the Pearson private curriculum during years 9-11, and NCEA during years 12 and 13.Earlier this year, the school said it had grown to 450 students after just six weeks, with permission to grow to 600 in term two this year.RNZ asked the Charter School Agency about the school's growth and what independent monitoring of the school had been conducted to ensure it warranted expansion.The agency said it recently approved an application to increase the school's roll to 2000 next year and 3000 in 2028, but did not cite any independent checking."This approval was based on evidence of growing demand, and satisfactory results against the attendance and achievement performance targets," it said."AIA were required to demonstrate how the school would manage a larger roll, including bringing on additional staff, supporting new students and meeting increased demand for in-person exam facilities."As with all charter schools, we will continue to monitor the school's performance against its contract. This includes targets for roll numbers, student attendance, and achievement. In contrast to state schools, the funding AIA receives is dependent on it continuing to meet these requirements."The academy was owned by Crimson Consulting, where former National Party leader and Prime Minister Sir John Key was a director, and was part of the Crimson Academies Group which included private online schools the Crimson Global Academy and Mount Hobson Academy, as well as Future School, a private school in Auckland.Academy principal Saira Boyle told RNZ the school's enrolments came from a range of backgrounds and areas, though a large number were from the Auckland region."We've got students who've come from the public school system, some who've come from the private school system, some from homeschooling."Boyle said daily attendance was at 90 percent or more, and more than half of the school's students were attending more than 90 percent of their classes - the benchmark for regular attendance.She said the school had 600 students, with about 400 more on a waitlist. Student achievement was also good."We have a large number of students, a significant number in reading, writing and maths who are at or above where they need to be. We're also supporting students who need that extra little bit of a boost with a range of intervention classes," she said.Asked if the school should have been subject to independent monitoring before gaining approval for significant growth, Boyle said the school could be trusted."We are sending regular reports into the Charter School Agency and I feel really, really confident that the powers that be see the good that we are doing. They can see how we're operating and they feel confident enough to give us that roll increase," she said.The PPTA's president Chris Abercombie said he was concerned about such rapid growth at a school.RNZ / Angus DreaverPost Primary Teachers' Association president Chris Abercrombie said there should be more publicly-available data about the school."At the moment we don't know if they're doing a good job or a great job or a bad job, yet they've been allowed to increase by 1500 students roughly in the space of two years."Abercrombie said he was concerned about such rapid growth, because it was difficult to manage.He said those concerns were amplified for an online school, which needed to provide pastoral care to teenagers."We need to actually look at why these kids are looking at an online school and actually is it the best option for them," he said."If a student's having mental health issues or they're having health issues, is being in your home, in your room, by yourself all day doing this work, is that the best thing for you?"Abercrombie was also critical of for-profit online schools, which he said had grown in number overseas."They're cheap to run. You don't need a building, you don't need to pay for power or oil for the boiler. You don't need to do any of those things so this is a way for businesses, people, organisations to run a school while having the lowest cost possible."He said the model already existed in the form of Te Kura, The Correspondence School."The Correspondence School has that social contract to support public education and this is effectively a private business and so it doesn't have that social contract," he said.The Charter School Agency provided RNZ with data the school submitted to support its application for growth.It showed only initial or entry data for reading, writing and maths, but claimed an 82 percent achievement rate for NCEA standards, with a third of results at excellence level.It also included positive comments from parents and teachers about the school."We considered this alongside our ongoing monitoring, the requirement for the school to provide pastoral support, and the continued demand from families choosing to enrol at the school - indicating they were happy with the progress their young people were making," the agency said.