Analysis: Erica Stanford faced a tough gig today. No, I’m not talking about auditioning for the National leadership. I’m talking about going head-to-head with the Black Ferns on a visit to Auckland’s Royal Oak Intermediate.
The same day she was visiting the school to announce the opening of 20 new specialist classrooms at Royal Oak and schools around New Zealand, members of the rugby team were training alongside some of the schools’ young players.
This was a week full of such opportunities for the 400 kids at the intermediate school. They competed with schools from across Auckland in Thursday night’s Mathex competition. They were training for Tournament of Minds. Today they were marking Tongan Language Week with cultural dress.
I know, because my 11-year-old son Gus goes there. He was looking forward to quizzing the minister on her leadership aspirations … but in the end he opted for something less contentious.
Not all our kids get these same opportunities at school. And some of those who face the toughest educational path are those with very high and complex special needs.
The schooling they’re offered is at the centre of a difficult debate: what should “inclusion” really look like?
Some of their whānau are enormously protective of the education many receive at the country’s 27 specialist schools; others would like their local schools adequately resourced to allow their children to attend them, in classes alongside their friends and siblings. Much depends on the complexity of the needs.
Last year, Stanford and the Ministry of Education agreed a landmark six-year settlement with IHC, the disability support charity. It’s called the Framework for Action. It commits to inclusive steps like enabling schools to provide the physical technology and access needed by its students.
But inclusivity means different things to different people, and of course, it can be constrained by force of circumstance. Can the funding be found? Can the teachers be trained?
The education minister is charting a compromise that involves more capital funding for the country’s existing specialist schools, opening the first new specialist schools in 50 years in Drury, Palmerston North and Gisborne, and building satellite classrooms in local schools.
Tapping $317 million in capital funding, she’s planning 142 new-build satellite classrooms. “This Government has drawn a line in the sand: inclusion is choice, and special education is a vital part of the schooling network, providing options for families,” Stanford says.
‘I do have a great relationship with the Prime Minister… He is very passionate about education, and I am extraordinarily grateful for the role that he’s given me to be able to transform the education system.’
Erica Stanford, Education Minister
What does that mean, that inclusion is choice? “It’s a choice for parents,” she tells me. “If parents choose to have their child at a mainstream school in a mainstream classroom, then that is their choice, and we will, and we have been, providing many resources to be able to enable that.
“In fact, $90m of that $317m I mentioned is around making sure we’re modifying schools so that young people with additional learning needs can learn in mainstream environments.
“But there are some of those with the most high and complex needs, those students who parents want choice and they are desperate for a specialist classroom, specialist provision. Some of those classrooms have hoists. Some of those schools have hydrotherapy pools, and so being able to provide that choice for parents is important to me.”
On Friday, Stanford announced 20 of these satellite classrooms, including two at Royal Oak Intermediate. These kids will be enrolled at Central Auckland Specialist School, their teachers and support staff will be employed through Central Auckland Specialist School, but their school days will be spent at Royal Oak.
“It’s just a reflection of real life,” says Royal Oak principal Caroline Shum. “We think it’s really good for our kids to connect and communicate and work alongside them, and also for their kids to have a better understanding. Our kids are really kind and caring.”
Trudi Brocas, the principal of Central Auckland Specialist School, visited Royal Oak for the announcement. The school she runs has just opened its 41st classroom – but only 14 of those classes and about 100 of the pupils are on its home campus in Mt Roskill. The rest are spread around Auckland.
“All of our students would have high and complex needs,” she tells me. “A number of our students have cerebral palsy and might be wheelchair users. An increasing number of our students, about 70 percent, have autism and associated secondary diagnoses.”
There are families and communities who grieve the loss of community when their children are moved out of specialist schools.
My colleague Hanna McCallum reported a flood of opposition to the planned closure of one of NZ’s few residential specialist schools, the troubled Westbridge School in Auckland.
Westbridge principal Cherie Jaeger said former students, families and teachers had shared the impact Westbridge had on their lives. “Their support has reinforced just how important this school is to the students and families who rely on it, and it reflects the belief that there continues to be a place for specialist residential education within New Zealand’s education system.”
But there are others, like Auckland University’s Dr Jude MacArthur, who say the satellite classrooms are sham inclusivity. “They’re separated out from the rest of the school,” she tells me this morning. “As long as you’re in a segregated specialist class and on the roll of specialist school, you’re not genuinely included in the school community. “
There are about 12,000 children receiving funding for high needs, but only a third of them are in specialist schools. MacArthur cites decades of research on inclusive education, internationally and in NZ, on children with disabilities getting separate education in local schools.
“They’re not in their classroom alongside their brothers and sisters and their friends. Inclusion is just as much about that sense of belonging in your school community – of growing up alongside the people who are going to be there to support you in life.”
Trudi Brocas acknowledges the principle of “inclusion” is open to debate. “The idea that every child should be in a mainstream class should be challenged. If a family chooses that for their child, and they are the experts in their children, and if they believe that their local school is the right place to meet their needs, then we should be resourcing and supporting that local school to do that as best they can.”
Isn’t it nigh-on impossible to resource every school to that level? “I’m not going to comment about that,” Brocas replies. “I can say that schools would suggest that they’re not resourced at a level to be able to do that in the way that they would like to.”
That’s a question for Stanford. How tough was it to get this much capex out of the budget? “Look, I have a great relationship with our wonderful Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis. She is very passionate about education,” Stanford replies.
The minister has created a new School Property Agency to manage school property, which comes into being ahead of schedule on October 1. “The key thing for me is driving better value for money. Yes, we get new money every Budget – that’s all fine. But I drive the ministry really, really hard.”
Does she also have a great relationship with the Prime Minister? “I do have a great relationship with the Prime Minister,” she replies, emphatically. “He is very passionate about education, and I am extraordinarily grateful for the role that he’s given me to be able to transform the education system.”
With such strong competing views on inclusive schooling for children with disabilities, Stanford is in somewhat of a no-win situation. For my money, I think she’s done well to extract so much funding from the Budget to invest in a ‘least-bad’ compromise.
What we do know is that none of these solutions – not Jaeger’s residential specialist school, not MacArthur’s fully-resourced inclusion in the classrooms of state schools, and not Stanford’s compromise satellite classrooms – will give children with disabilities all the same opportunities that our local schools are able to offer Gus and other kids.
There’s no easy answer to this.
Jonathan Milne updated this article with new photos and interviews after the minister’s visit to Royal Oak Intermediate School.
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