While the school \u201cfully acknowledged\u201d historical failures, Wesley College principal Brian Evans told the Herald that over the past few years, the school had found the stance of ERO staff to be \u201cdeeply disrespectful\u201d of the students they interviewed, claiming they were lying and covering up.<\/p>\n
He claimed students had disclosed after several ERO visits that they felt the ERO staff were trying to put words in their mouths and badgered them about whether they felt safe at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cERO\u2019s approach appeared to be dismissive of the student voice. Students said they felt pressured to provide negative answers. That totally undermines our efforts to nurture a culture where students feel safe and empowered to speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, ERO deputy chief executive for review and improvement services Shelley Booysen has hit back, saying it \u201cstrongly refutes\u201d the claims made by Evans about the evaluation, and that ERO would not apologise for protecting the safety of students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis school has a long history of abuse,\u201d Booysen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acknowledge that ERO visits may at times be unsettling for staff and students, but we make no apology for ensuring that student welfare is not only prioritised but consistently protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
ERO actively seeks the perspectives of students during hostel reviews, Booysen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cERO maintains a comprehensive quality assurance process for all reviews, and we can confirm that this review meets all requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ERO progress report, released by the school today, said a July 2025 monitoring visit revealed a further serious incident of bullying and assault at the college\u2019s hostel.<\/p>\n
During the July progress meeting, ERO was informed that since its previous visit, another significant bullying incident had occurred at the hostel.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn this occasion, more than 30 senior students left their hostel building at night, entered a junior building, and a small group of senior boys either participated in or observed the bullying and assault of junior students,\u201d the report read.<\/p>\n
ERO: \u2018This is not a safe place for students\u2019<\/p>\n
Booysen said the Wesley College hostel is not a safe place for students. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have identified significant issues, including weak supervisory systems and a troubling culture of peer-on-peer abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cERO has undertaken several reviews into the hostel provision at the school over the past few years, and made strong recommendations relating to hostel governance and leadership, health and safety, complaints procedures, and our concerns about the overall quality of care for boarders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Booysen said while the college and the Wesley Trust Board made many commitments in response, ERO\u2019s concern continued.<\/p>\n
Wesley responds to ERO report<\/p>\n
Evans said the ERO report referred to historical and recent events, but offered no clarity on which issues were ongoing and which had been \u201clong-since addressed\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the school \u201cfully acknowledged\u201d historical failures, particularly abuse and negative traditions identified by previous reviews and the Royal Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, conflation of timelines risks misleading both the public and our school community about the scope and persistence of challenges. Our safeguarding programme aims to be gold standard and one that we are confident is working well. No longer do we have a culture of silence in the school.\u201d<\/p>\n
When this report was written, he said the school had experienced one incident this year that involved students in possession of alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had one incident that involved students in possession of cannabis. We certainly don\u2019t condone these students\u2019 behaviour, but you would be hard pressed to find a school in New Zealand that doesn\u2019t have low-level issues such as these.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the school\u2019s current gold-standard safeguarding programme and systematic improvements in day-to-day supervision, facilities and student reporting mechanisms are vastly understated in the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cSignificant investments have resulted in demonstrably safer and more transparent hostel environments, yet these advances are barely foregrounded in recent reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans was also confident the school had broken down its former \u201cculture of silence\u201d and its anonymous reporting systems were effective.<\/p>\n
He said incident reporting indicated there was trust in the system, rather than ongoing dysfunction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that ERO\u2019s continued scepticism towards the authenticity of student voice is at odds with this real transformation and is, in particular, hugely disrespectful to young M\u0101ori and Pasifika students.<\/p>\n
Wesley College is on Auckland’s southern border. Photo \/ File <\/p>\n
\u201cWesley College had seen significant improvements to NCEA achievement and student wellbeing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNCEA Levels 2 and 3 achievements are up, and chronic absenteeism down. Students report increased engagement in learning and feel more positive about school culture than in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trust board decided to close hostels from the end of 2025 to accelerate ongoing transformation. This reflects a desire for enduring cultural, structural and practice change, not band-aid fixes or surface compliance. We want to reopen the hostels as a national exemplar with state-of-the-art environments \u2013 safe, inclusive and wholly values-based.\u201d<\/p>\n
Legal wrangle over Wesley\u2019s hostels<\/p>\n