Church schools typically have a chaplain, a Christian element to assemblies, and religious education classes. But what else sets them apart from the schools developed by the state system? Amanda Wells reports.
Tradition, clear values and pastoral care are proving strong drawcards in the education market, with Presbyterian schools spoken to by sPanz experiencing demand that outstrips the number of places they can offer.
Grant Lander, rector of Lindisfarne College in the Hawkes Bay, says Christian values are promoted in the relationship between staff and students, between parents and staff, and with the wider community. “We have a caring and family-type atmosphere.”
“If it’s only in the chapel, we’re not doing it right. It has to be lived out in the relationship and interactions that exist on a day-to-day basis.”
He says the college takes practical steps to ensure its values are reflected in its operations, including worship services three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. Five times a term, between 400 and 500 people, including a large number of parents, attend the Sunday service.
Mr Lander says that the values-based Christian ethos appears to be a major attraction to parents.
Lindisfarne has a roll of 485, with 215 boarders, making it one of the largest boarding schools in the country. This year it will accept 85 new students for the 2007 year – out of 245 applications.
Lindisfarne is integrated, meaning it receives the same government funding for each student as a state school but as the buildings and land remain privately owned, it can charge a fee to meet the costs of property development and maintenance.
Mr Lander says it’s important the school roll continues to reflect its rural and urban community in the face of this strong demand. “We don’t want to be an elistist institution.”
Lindisfarne has a special relationship with Tuhoe, accepting 28 students under the Te Whaiti Nui-a-toi scheme.
Mr Lander says his only concern about Presbyterian Church education is that it is not responding to the level of demand in the community.
“We’ve got five Presbyterian boys’ schools and it’s been that number since 1953. When is the sixth one going to come? Where is it going to come?
“Is the Church going to be more proactive?
“We have a real role to play in evangelising and passing on the message that has perhaps been underestimated in the wider Church.”
Mr Lander says opportunity exists in areas of population growth. For example, the government will invest about $237 million over the next 10 years to build seven new schools in Flat Bush, Manukau City. The schools are needed to meet population growth in Flat Bush, which is projected to increase to 40,000 by 2020. That includes more than 8,500 school age children.
Parents who were brought up connected to the Church often seem to want a Christian education for their children, even if they are no longer involved, Mr Lander says.
However, an interesting recent trend is that some parents have kept attending Sunday worship even after their children have left the school, he says.
Lindisfarne’s prospective students need to have a commitment to the Christian faith, which Mr Lander says often deepens during their association with the school. Ten students from years 9 and 7 are being baptised this year.
Lindisfarne also has a strong link with St Andrew’s Presbyterian in Hastings and worships with this congregation on a regular basis.
Milada Pivac, deputy principal (pastoral) of Wellington’s Queen Margaret College, says being a Christian school means modeling Jesus’ injunction to love God and your neighbour as a matter of course.
“In terms of behaviour from the girls, it means as much as the individual can be convinced to exhibit it, but the school will not let up in its modelling or its specific teaching.”
Students attend a religious education lesson and chaplain’s assembly every week, and Ms Pivac says it is very rare for anyone to seek to be excused on the ground of moral objection.
Ms Pivac characterises the college’s relationship with local Presbyterian churches as “one of mutual respect”, with annual services at St Andrew’s on the Terrace and St John’s in the City.
Looking ahead for Christian education, Ms Pivac says its essential values will remain eternal. “We will and must stay faithful to them… and yet we must be fluid and relevant in the way we deliver them.”
Scots College principal Tim Oughton says being a Church school is not so much about being Biblical but about being values-based and “walking the talk”.
Scots’ programme of religious instruction covers other world religions and ethics, as well as Christian education.
Care and concern for others, tolerance and being accepting of difference underpin the college’s day-to-day life, he says.
Mr Oughton says the school has developed strong links with St John’s in the City and St Christopher’s in Seatoun.
An independent school, Wellington-based Scots has close to 700 students from years 1 to 13. The roll has increased by 150 over the past four years but there are no further plans to grow beyond this “optimal” size, he says.
About 50 students start in the secondary school and 60 in the primary school each year. Mr Oughton says 2007 is already closed to new students, which is a trend that has emerged only in the past couple of years.
“There must be something going on. Parents are very concerned about values.”