Double-Unit High School Studied

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31082, 10 June 1966, Page 1

Double-Unit High School Studied

A double-unit high school for Burnside with a roll of 1600 to 2000 on the Porirua East pattern will be investigated by the Board of Governors by sending the headmaster (Mr C. Cross) to Wellington, if necessary, to prepare a comprehensive report.

Mr Cross and all board members expressed reluctance to increase the roll beyond the present 1000 but agreed that greatest pressure

of numbers would arise in its area and that a large school on the present and adjoining sites might be the best solution of all concerned. Mr A. F. Foley, the board’s representative on the Christchurch Secondary Schools’ Council, said the council had invited Burnside opinion on how the demand might be met.

Several developments had occurred, Mr Foley said, which opened the way for a larger school. (1) The new Teachers’ College would be at Ham releasing the 20 acres adjoining the Burnside High

School. (2) a new school on the Breen’s road site was not

widely favoured (3) division of any existing co-educational school and erection of a new one to provide two single-sex schools was not supported. It was agreed, Mr Foley said, that intimate touch between staff and pupils was lost when the roll passed 600 or 700; a larger school offered more scope and better provision for all abilities and interests: individual attention could be preserved by operating, in effect, two schools on the same site with an associate principal in charge of each, an over-all head, and tutors on half class-teaching duties. Predictions before the board showed that Bumside could expect an intake of 500 from present standards one in its area by 1972, without allowing for housing extensions.