{"id":119918,"date":"2025-11-05T21:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/119918\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:26:08","slug":"wesley-college-launches-legal-action-against-ministry-of-education-after-hostel-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/119918\/","title":{"rendered":"Wesley College launches legal action against Ministry of Education after hostel shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wesley\u2019s trust board said on Thursday that the timing and nature of the ministry\u2019s suspension had \u201cplaced significant pressure on students, families, and staff\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe board believes the ministry\u2019s approach has been unnecessarily disruptive, particularly for Year 9 and 10 students in the final weeks of the school year who are engaged in exams, learning projects, and end-of-year commitments. The board is disappointed the ministry also chose to release details to the media before meeting with the board,\u201d Wesley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trust board and school leadership take student safety seriously and believe they have met all requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal action relates solely to the abrupt closure directive, which affects Year 9 and Year 10 students. As the school community was advised earlier this term, we planned to close the hostels at the end of Term 4 in an orderly and well-supported way. The board remains focused on ensuring the safety, stability and continuity of care for all Wesley College students boarding in the hostels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board said that it had also made changes to address any concerns. They included: <\/p>\n

One staff member for every 15 students overnight. One staff member for every 10 students during the day. A minimum of two staff on duty in each dormitory at all times, regardless of student numbers. <\/p>\n

\u2018Serious and ongoing concerns about the safety and wellbeing\u2019<\/p>\n

As first reported by the Herald<\/a>, the Education Review Office (ERO) recommended the suspension of Wesley\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision [to close the hostels] follows a pattern of serious and ongoing concerns about the safety and wellbeing of boarders,\u201d the Ministry of Education\u2019s Sean Teddy told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some improvements have been made since special conditions were imposed on the hostel\u2019s renewed licence in April 2025, further serious incidents have occurred this year. These incidents have highlighted persistent issues with student safety, staff oversight and the hostel\u2019s ability to shift away from longstanding practices that place boarders at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

ERO\u2019s recommendation to suspend the licence was made in a September report. The office has refused a request from the Herald to proactively release that report.<\/p>\n

Teddy said that the ERO\u2019s recommendation, \u201calongside the ministry\u2019s own monitoring and the recurrence of harmful incidents, has led to the conclusion that continued operation of the hostel in its current state is not in the best interests of boarders\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"WesleyWesley College is on Auckland’s southern border. Photo \/ File <\/p>\n

While international boarders and any students sitting NCEA assessments will be able to stay on to complete the term, all others must leave by this Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese safeguards apply solely to the interim exam period of term 4, 2025. The hostel remains subject to closure in 2026, as previously announced by the Wesley College Trust Board, and the licence remains suspended as outlined in the official suspension notice,\u201d Teddy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry remains focused on making sure that all boarders are safe and supported and will continue to work closely with the school and families to manage this transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wesley College announced last month<\/a> that the hostels would close at the end of this term \u201cfor a period sufficient to ensure meaningful and lasting improvements are achieved\u201d.<\/p>\n

The school said the decision followed \u201congoing concerns about student safety and hostel culture\u201d and that its trust board accepted \u201cfurther deep, structural change is required\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudent safety and wellbeing are our highest priority,\u201d Tasker said last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge that our hostel provision has not yet met the consistent standard we expect. Closing the hostels is a decisive step that will allow us to reset the culture, systems and facilities once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years\u2019 experience in the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wesley\u2019s trust board said on Thursday that the timing and nature of the ministry\u2019s suspension had \u201cplaced significant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[432,74,9092,534,51,34705,651,12784,10709,1349,47126,84,22220,3298,67091,809,1739,6712,28874,111,43,139,69,1118,5493,19719,6302,4062,7538,9631,1335,698,31092,67090],"class_list":["post-119918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-action","tag-after","tag-against","tag-amid","tag-auckland","tag-boarding","tag-close","tag-college","tag-concerns","tag-court","tag-dorms","tag-education","tag-going","tag-hostel","tag-hostels","tag-keep","tag-launches","tag-legal","tag-ministry","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-open","tag-ordered","tag-safety","tag-school","tag-shutdown","tag-student","tag-term","tag-until","tag-urgently","tag-wesley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}