Outside the classroom, participation is starting to suffer,<\/a> particularly when it comes to extracurricular activities.\u201d<\/p>\nHockley said there had been a recent reluctance from parents to transport children or teams to sports events, while teachers and staff are increasingly claiming mileage for travel.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the fuel crisis, staff would rarely claim mileage. Now, the school also avoids booking buses for transport to sport or cultural events as the costs can be prohibitive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The ministry said schools are supported through a mix of operational funding and targeted transport assistance, with boards given flexibility to decide how funding is used locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperational funding is calculated using national formulas \u2026 and boards have flexibility to use this funding to meet local operating costs,\u201d acting group general manager Andrea Williams said.<\/p>\n
Hukerenui School has a roll of between 151 and 300 students so on a funding scale from U1-19 is U4 and therefore does not qualify for Ministry of Education fuel relief. <\/p>\n
Recent Government measures in response to fuel price increases have included a 30% increase in payments for families who transport their children to and from school, higher mileage rates for relief teachers, and one-off grants for schools with fewer than 100 students.<\/p>\n
However, those measures do not extend to mid-sized rural schools such as Hukerenui, and the ministry acknowledged some may still be under pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome schools, including rural schools that sit outside eligibility thresholds for certain supports, may still be facing challenges,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
Hockley said rural schools, regardless of their size, would continue to be affected the longer the global fuel situation persisted. <\/p>\n
In the NZEI press release, other rural principals reported similar pressures, including reduced attendance linked to travel costs, increased transport expenses for schools, and staff limiting professional development because of travel costs.<\/p>\n
The ministry said it is monitoring those effects, including attendance trends in regions such as Northland.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttendance and participation are influenced by a range of factors, including wider cost-of-living pressures. Transport can be part of that for some families,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard feedback from schools that rising costs, including fuel, can affect attendance and participation in activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ministry said recent fuel cost increases had been considered through its funding processes and settings would continue to be reviewed, while schools facing ongoing pressure were encouraged to work with regional ministry teams to identify available support.<\/p>\n
Sarah Curtis<\/a> is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, most of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hockley said increased fuel prices were being felt across the Hukerenui School community, where many families relied on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[73010,95,806,15250,802,231824,28903,5988,231823,2678,20557,6501,111,43,139,1067,69,90,26859,3111,22388,12937,1436,801,3175,312,4062,2022,9631,3767,102],"class_list":["post-456108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-activities","tag-and","tag-as","tag-budgets","tag-costs","tag-daytoday","tag-effects","tag-families","tag-flowon","tag-fuel","tag-hitting","tag-missing","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-operations","tag-out","tag-participation","tag-prices","tag-rise","tag-rising","tag-rural","tag-says","tag-school","tag-sport","tag-student","tag-students","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456108","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=456108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}