{"id":264892,"date":"2026-02-03T03:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T03:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/264892\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T03:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T03:45:10","slug":"tauranga-school-rolls-fairhaven-growth-drives-classroom-shortage-zoning-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/264892\/","title":{"rendered":"Tauranga school rolls: Fairhaven growth drives classroom shortage, zoning limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hunt told the Bay of Plenty Times the school had experienced a \u201chuge burst\u201d of students due to a change in immigration settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a big influx of workers coming to Te Puke, around the kiwifruit and other industries, so we had a very unexpected jump and have progressed to over 500 students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ministry\u2019s data showed a provisional school roll of 565 students – up from its confirmed roll of 479 students last year.<\/p>\n

Hunt said the underlying issue the school had was its need for more classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very full and would require classrooms from the Ministry of Education to assist with our numbers if they did increase like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said one of the school\u2019s key challenges was their out-of-zone students did not count towards the criteria used to determine whether the school qualified for new buildings.<\/p>\n

\"FairhavenFairhaven School principal Paul Hunt. Photo \/ George Novak <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a juggling act. We\u2019re having to be very strict on people who are out of zone and unable to enrol at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fairhaven School<\/a> experienced growth across all year levels, but the majority were new entrants, Hunt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we\u2019re going to be short of classrooms, and we\u2019ve got a multi-purpose building that we\u2019ll have to use, possibly by the end of the year for new entrant classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arataki School \u2018not surprised\u2019 by roll increase <\/p>\n

Arataki School principal Vicki Hiini said she was \u201cnot surprised\u201d by the projected roll increase as the school had significant growth in the past two years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Bay of Plenty Times reported the school\u2019s provisional roll for 2025 had the largest increase of students in the region, 108 students.<\/p>\n

Ministry data this year showed a provisional school roll of 564 students – up 79 from its confirmed roll of 485 students last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cArataki School is located in a very desirable area of Mount Maunganui that is affordable for families,\u201d Hiini said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great community of like-minded families enrolling their children at our kura.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiini said the main reasons behind the school\u2019s continued growth were housing intensification, it being a great place to live, and it was \u201can awesome school\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen significant housing developments in our school zone, but the challenge is that we have to have our school zone closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AratakiArataki School principal Vicki Hiini said she was \u201cnot surprised\u201d by the projected roll increase for 2026. Photo \/ Alex Cairns<\/p>\n

She said the school had to turn away families who did not live in the school zone as some facilities were now \u201ctoo small\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are prepared as we can be with staff and teaching levels; however, I am concerned that we are running out of space, and will need additional classrooms in the very near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiini said she worked closely with the school\u2019s property adviser from the Ministry of Education as they monitored growth. <\/p>\n

Ministry of Education Te Tai Whenua haut\u016b (central deputy secretary) Jocelyn Mikaere said the ministry managed school infrastructure by planning for growth and population shifts in the short and long-term. <\/p>\n

Mikaere said the ministry prioritised new schools, expansions and roll growth to ensure funding is directed to where it is most needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continually reviewing the data so we can see and quickly respond to changes in the expected timing of, and forecast demand for, additional student places.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said in the case of Fairhaven School and Arataki School, both accepted \u201csignificant\u201d numbers of out-of-zone students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage principals to contact our local team if they have specific matters they would like to discuss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hunt told the Bay of Plenty Times the school had experienced a \u201chuge burst\u201d of students due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35855,52606,151249,3499,53946,111,43,139,69,25259,4062,14182,1227,36691],"class_list":["post-264892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-classroom","tag-drives","tag-fairhaven","tag-growth","tag-limits","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rolls","tag-school","tag-shortage","tag-tauranga","tag-zoning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892","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=264892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}