Teachers in Christchurch

6 July 2011

Dwindling school rolls in Christchurch could mean more than 300 teachers lose their jobs at the end of the year.

Continuing aftershocks in Christchurch are leading families to leave the region. Figures released by the Ministry of Education showed that 4,496 pupils had moved to new schools since the February 22 earthquake.  

Canterbury Primary Principals' Association president John Bangma said that the drastic reduction in enrolment could cost up to 350 teachers their jobs.

Principals in the region have called on the Government to continue to fund schools at pre-earthquake levels, but Education Minister Anne Tolley says that is not possible.

Ms Tolley says that the drop in roll numbers would not effect funding this year, but that next year funding would have to be reduced to reflect schools' enrolment numbers as at July 1.

(Courtesy of 3 News)

Christchurch trembles again, from terrifying aftershocks.

15 June 2011

Aggression surfaces among school children

8 June 2011

This article is written by Tina Law, and featured in The Press on Wednesday, June 1st 2011.

Christchurch schools are dealing with a growing number of aggressive children after the February earthquake.

School principals, particularly those in the eastern suburbs, say they are seeing outbursts of anti-social behaviour and high levels of anxiety among children as they struggle with aftershocks and changes in their lives.

Shirley Intermediate School principal Geoff Siave said he had seen an increase in argumentative behaviour and minor feuds.  He said there were also heightened levels of anxiety.

"The stress is lying just below the surface. Our teachers are being vigilant."

Siave said the school had more teachers patrolling the playground during breaks.  The school counsellor and two youth workers were also supporting children, he said.  A survey showed half of the school's pupils had to leave damaged homes after the quake.

Freeville School principal John Leonard said there had been an upsurge in behavioural problems at the North New Brighton school.  The uncertainty created by the quake, the loss of routine and the disruption had seen some behavioural problems among some pupils, he said.  "For those children at risk, everything needs to be going well for them."

He said there had been problems in the classroom and during breaks, but the problems had been expected and the Education Ministry had given the school extra money to employ more teacher aides and to fund more teaching time.  Leonard said the school had a "floating teacher" who could take over a class if the teacher needed to take time out with a child.  A third of the school's 290 children were living in homes with severe damage, he said.  "What we see at school is a reflection of what parents are coping with at home," he said.

Chisnallwood Intermediate School principal Richard Paton said children needed emotional support and counselling.  The Aranui school's counsellor was now working fulltime dealing with children affected by the quake, and teacher aide hours had been increased, he said.  "The impact has been huge and ongoing. I think that possibly the worst is still to come in terms of the impact on some families," Paton said.

Christchurch clinical psychologist Fran Vertue said the normal reaction to a threat was fight or flight, so when children were irritable, that could be driven by anxiety rather than anger.  Vertue said she had seen an increase in the number of children not wanting to be separated from their parents.  "They seem to be more dependent on parents' attention and time."  Parents had tended to give their children more space and relax rules after the quake, but that only increased children's anxiety, Vertue said.

Principals fear job cuts as pupils stay away..

17 May 2011

Less than half of the 10,000 students who fled Christchurch after the quake have returned to their original schools - leaving principals worried they will be forced to cut staff next year.

More than 10,200 students enrolled at other schools around the country in the weeks after February's devastating 6.3 earthquake. By this week, only 4000 had returned.

Of the 6200 students enrolled elsewhere, 960 are studying at other Christchurch schools, and nearly 900 are in Auckland. Many of these are believed to have permanently moved,

While some principals say students are returning in "dribs and drabs", many fear the majority of those who planned to come back would have done so by now.  There is growing apprehension the drop in student numbers will mean cuts to teacher numbers, which are only guaranteed until the end of this year.

St Mary's School principal David O'Neill said he had 107 students before the earthquake. Today there are 89.

For a small school that drop could equate to losing one teacher - a big blow given the school almost closed eight years ago with only 52 students and two teachers but had worked hard to build up its roll and staff in recent years.

All Christchurch schools are receiving full funding, even if their students have enrolled elsewhere.

Decisions on how long that will continue are yet to be made, but schools are concerned it will end in July when the next roll returns are due.

Mr O'Neill believes his school could lose up to $10,000 - money he would have to replace through careful rebudgeting.  But he is more concerned about staffing levels, which the Ministry of Education has guaranteed to retain only until the end of this year.

"Next year when the figures go through we may lose a teacher at our school. That's what most schools on the eastern side of Christchurch are facing too - staff losses," he said.  "I can cope with the money because I can budget here and there and change things around but losing a teacher means I have to go from a five-teacher school to a four-teacher school."

New Zealand Educational Institute president Ian Leckie said staffing entitlements were based on the previous year's roll, so many schools faced losing teachers if their rolls did not increase in the next few months.  He urged the Government to think long term and retain staff and resources, such as classroom buildings, until at least the end of next year as he believed the rolls would eventually grow again.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said about $20 million had been made available from contingency funding for schools and early childhood services. Relief teachers had also been provided, as had funding to bus about 6000 students to their temporary school sites.

Students from 10 Christchurch schools which remain closed are still being taught in other sites. New supervised study centres were announced yesterday to help those students.

The total cost of school damage is yet to be determined, but Ms Tolley said the ministry had already spent about $3 million on emergency repairs and providing temporary relocated classrooms.

~ courtesy of Elizabeth Binning, NZ Herald

To what degree does media coverage impact on students?

20 April 2011

Can students not directly affected be traumatised?

Click here to watch an interesting video on this subject.

A Poem by a 16 year old girl who survived the Christchurch Earthquake...

13 April 2011

(Courtesy of AngelAngel, AllPoetry)

Check out these fabulous Messages of Hope sent in from St Anthony's Primary, Noble Park

24 March 2011

SUPER WORK KIDS!

March 18 is the date for a National Memorial Service to honor victims of the Christchurch earthquake.

8 March 2011

(Courtesy of Derek Cheng from nzherald.co.nz)

The service, which will be held in North Hagley Park, is being organised by the Christchurch City Council and the Visits and Ceremonial Office with wide consultation from the community and families.

"The service will give people the chance to reflect on the terrible loss of life suffered as a result of the earthquake, and the huge impact it has had on our second largest city.

"This is an opportunity for Christchurch to mourn together. It will also be a chance to celebrate the lives of those who have been lost."

The service will begin at 12.45pm (10.45am Sydney time) and two minutes' silence will be observed at 12.51pm (10.51am Sydney time).

Mr Key has also announced that the day will be a provincial holiday so the people of Canterbury can attend the National Memorial Service. Legislation will be required to do this.  "While we will never forget those who have been lost, we must now focus that indomitable Canterbury spirit on the future."

LET'S SHOW CHRISTCHURCH THAT WE CARE! GET YOUR SCHOOLS ON BOARD WITH TWO MINUTES SILENCE AND A GOLD COIN EACH!

School counts lost students, staff

25 February 2011

(Courtesy of Sydney Morning Herald, article by Rebecca Todd and Michael Fox).

AS THE entire CTV building crumpled around her, a Kings Education English language teacher stepped out of her window and walked across the rubble to safety.  She was lucky. Fourteen staff and 108 students are still trapped in the ruined building.

Yesterday a 70-member disaster relief team from Japan scoured the building for signs of life. Only 10 of 21 Japanese students from Toyama were believed to be safe.

The Japan Today news website said several family members of the students arrived in Christchurch yesterday. One student, Kento Okuda, had to have his right leg amputated to be freed from the debris. He told Kyodo News from Christchurch Hospital that this was his first trip overseas.

''Despite this incident, I still want to visit many other countries,'' he said. ''I hope to get a job where I can use English.''

Mr Okuda was having lunch in the fourth-floor cafeteria when the earthquake hit. He found himself trapped in rubble, in the dark, with a strong pain in his right leg. Other students from the school were around him.He used his mobile phone to call his brother in Japan, who contacted the Japanese police and foreign ministry.

Another student, Lai Chang, had contacted her family at home in Guangzhou in southern China soon after the quake to tell them she was trapped.  Her father contacted the embassy in New Zealand and it alerted search and rescue staff in Christchurch, Mr Xin said.

She had not been rescued.

At a news conference yesterday, Kings directors John Ryder and Graeme Dodd said a lack of access to student records because of the quake had made identification more difficult. With students from Japan, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Korea, Mr Ryder said the disaster would be felt across the world.

''This isn't just a tragedy for Christchurch and New Zealand, it's a tragedy to the world,'' he said.

Mr Dodd said the loss of the school's principal, Brian Taylor, who they had met shortly before the quake, was hard to take.  ''It was just awful thinking about our colleagues,'' he said.  Mr Dodd said he had been buoyed by the relatively solid state of most of the buildings he passed on the way to the school, but his hopes were dashed when he arrived.  He paid tribute to Mr Taylor, ''a highly respected man''. ''He was like a father to them.''

Mr Dodd said one staff member climbed out her third-floor office window after the building collapsed and was assisted by students over the rubble to safety. Another, with a broken leg, had climbed out of the lift shaft to safety.

Christchurch rocked by massive 6.3 earthquake.

23 February 2011

Source: ONE News/Newstalk ZB

The quake, which struck at 6.03am, 22 February, was of the biggest tremors since September's big shake. It hit 10km southwest of Christchurch at a depth of 10km.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the aftershocks were frustrating and another "rude wake up call for the city" they would rather not have.

"There's a sense of 'is this ever going to stop' and I don't think anybody back on the 4th of September would have imagined that here we would be in 2011, in the middle of January, experiencing significant aftershocks.

"We seem to take a step forward and the next thing you know, we're back up here checking the buildings again.

"It doesn't matter the size of the aftershock, psychologically what it always does is bring back that intense feeling of fear and uncertainty." 

• Check out these interactive before and after photographs, which help to explain the extent of damage and devastation to Christchurch.

GeoNet duty seismologist John Ristau said the aftershock was felt widely all over the Canterbury region as well as on the West Coast and in Oamaru. Two more aftershocks, one measuring 3.4 and the other 4.0, were recorded in the area just after 8am and in the past 24 hours, there have been 21 tremors in the Canterbury region. They ranged in magnitude from 2.7, up to the 5.1 quake this morning. And Ristau said the aftershocks could even extend beyond the anniversary of the September 4 earthquake.