{"id":274700,"date":"2026-02-09T03:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T03:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/274700\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T03:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T03:26:08","slug":"statutory-manager-appointed-to-board-of-wesley-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/274700\/","title":{"rendered":"Statutory manager appointed to board of Wesley College"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ministry of Education and Wesley College have been contacted for further comment.<\/p>\n

The school, on Auckland\u2019s southern border, was subjected to heightened scrutiny towards the end of 2025 over its boarding hostels.<\/p>\n

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

The Ministry of Education, in November, ordered Wesley – the country\u2019s oldest school – to close its hostels after serious and \u201charmful\u201d incidents related to student safety.<\/p>\n

The ministry<\/a> also suspended the school\u2019s boarding licence at the time.<\/p>\n

Separately, the Herald reported last month that two staff members at Wesley College<\/a> have been suspended amid concerns Pentecostal-like ceremonies in darkened rooms without parental consent.<\/p>\n

A complainant from the school provided images of the \u201cprayer classes\u201d which they said showed staff \u201claying hands\u201d on students. It\u2019s alleged the young people were encouraged to help rid fellow students of dark forces and taught to \u201cspeak in tongues\u201d.<\/p>\n

Methodist Church president Te Aroha Rountree told the Herald she was shocked to learn of the exorcism allegations, which she became aware of in November, from the whistleblower.<\/p>\n

The Herald revealed earlier this month six other schools in the Auckland region have LSMs<\/a> assisting their boards to raise standards.<\/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":"The Ministry of Education and Wesley College have been contacted for further comment. The school, on Auckland\u2019s southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17623,51,1558,2372,651,12784,10709,18982,67091,93,111,43,139,69,1118,19719,6302,4062,36171,9631,61,67090],"class_list":["post-274700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-appointed","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-board","tag-close","tag-college","tag-concerns","tag-embattled","tag-hostels","tag-manager","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-ordered","tag-safety","tag-school","tag-statutory","tag-student","tag-to","tag-wesley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274700","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=274700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274700\/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=274700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}