Enrolment Scheme and VS Zone

Vogeltown School Enrolment Scheme:

Background

An enrolment scheme is a tool that enables a school board of trustees to prevent overcrowding at its school. In recent years Vogeltown School Board of Trustees has become increasingly concerned about the rising roll at the school; a growth in numbers that is placing pressure on teaching spaces and teaching staff.

Purpose of the Enrolment Scheme

The two main purposes of the enrolment scheme are:

• To avoid overcrowding or the likelihood of overcrowding at the school; and
• To ensure that the selection of applicants for enrolment at the school is carried out in a fair and transparent manner.

Principles underpinning the Enrolment Scheme

The following principles apply when considering and implementing an enrolment scheme:

• The scheme WILL NOT exclude local students; and
• No more students are excluded from the school than is necessary to avoid overcrowding.

Legislative Requirements

In accordance with the Education Act 1989, the following criteria must apply when developing an enrolment scheme:

• Each scheme must contain a home zone with clearly defined geographic boundaries. (S11E(1)).
• Students who live in the home zone have an absolute right to enroll at the school (S11D(1)).
• The boundaries of the zone must touch or overlap the boundaries of the zones in any neighbouring schemes (S11(1)(c)).
• A student living in the home zone must find it reasonably convenient to attend the See 11E(2a).
• The home zone must be drawn in such a way that every student can attend a reasonably convenient school. See 11I(1)(b).

How the Enrolment Zone Works

An enrolment scheme sets up a ‘home zone’.  A home zone is a defined geographically area, whereby children who reside in the area are guaranteed a place at the school. The ‘home zone’ proposed for Vogeltown School is set out in Appendix A.

The ‘home zone’ has been developed to ensure that all students have a reasonably convenient school which they can attend, whilst paying close attention to the capacity of the school. Capacity refers to the number of teaching spaces and the staffing allocation that sits alongside those teaching spaces.

An enrolment scheme cannot state a maximum roll, because ALL children within the ‘home zone’ are entitled to attend the school. However, the zone boundary does reflect, based on existing enrolment data and school capacity an ideal roll number of 320 students across 14 teaching spaces at Vogeltown School.

Should there be a situation where the number of enrolments from the ‘home zone’ does not lead to the school operating at full capacity, the school shall allocate a number of places for ‘out of zone enrolments’. The number of out of zone enrolments will be advertised on an annual basis.

Out of zone enrolments are conducted by a ballot (for which there is a prescribed process). Out of school enrolments shall be awarded according to the following order of priority:

• Students accepted for enrolment in a special programme run by the school (Vogeltown School does not operate any special programmes)
• Siblings of current students;
• Siblings of former students;
• Child of a former student
• Children of board employees or a child of a board member;
• All other students.

Proof of Residence in the Home Zone

A student is considered to be living in the home zone when the student currently (at those times when the school is open for instruction) has his or her place of residence at an address within the home zone and intends to remain within the zone. The intention of remaining within the home zone is shown by any of the following:

• The student lives with his or her parent(s)/guardian(s) in a house in the home zone owned, leased or rented by the parent(s)/guardian(s).
• The student lives with a family member or some other responsible adult who has been given a primary duty of care by the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s) in a house in the home zone owned, leased or rented by that adult.

What Happens to People Who Live Outside of the Zone and are currently at Vogeltown School

Any child who attends Vogeltown School at the time that a zone is put in place, regardless of whether they live in the home zone or out of zone is entitled and welcome to stay at Vogeltown School. And, as per the out of zone process, the family will be a high priority to apply for a sibling to attend the school in future. Vogeltown is a whānau/family school, we are proud of our multi generation Vogeltown family, and we want that to continue. We are only looking to put in place the enrolment zone to maintain the quality learning and community learning environment that we are proud of.

Zone Map