Property intensification, house prices and immigration are playing a part in the rapid growth of some schools. File photo. Photo: Unsplash / Nicole Honeywill
A primary school on Auckland's North Shore is overflowing with so many students, it has had to convert the library and the hallway into classrooms.
Milford School has a roll of 550 and is struggling to take any more students - even if they are in zone.
It is an issue becoming more common across certain areas in Auckland, with property intensification, house prices and immigration playing a part in the rapid growth of some schools.
But it is a different story in some of the more affluent areas of Auckland, where some schools are experiencing the opposite and struggling to fill their rolls.
Milford School principal Lucy Naylor said their resources are stretched to the maximum, because the school has grown by 150 students over the past two years.
"We have 25 classrooms at the moment, they are all full. We have a class currently in the library and we used our library last year in terms 3 and 4 as a classroom space, so we've had no library."
She said towards the end of last year, the school's hall was also turned into a classroom.
"Over the Christmas break, we have converted our teacher resource room into a classroom space as well. So, we've had to jam teacher resources into broom cupboards and all sorts of funny places.
"Moving forward we'll be converting an admin office space into a teaching space as well, meaning that the offices will be relocated into portable cabins somewhere in the school."
Their current roll is sitting at 550 and by the end of the year, it is expected to rise to 650. The school is no longer taking students from out of zone - including siblings of current students.
Naylor said it was tough decision.
"From a family point of view, you might have a child in Year 4 who has been here for four years, but we can't take the next child that's coming through. For a lot of families that is really difficult and as a principal it was a really difficult decision to have to make.
"I can fully understand the challenges that come with that, to have two different primary-aged children in two different schools is far from ideal."
Naylor said the school had to make difficult decisions because the Ministry of Education did not allocate extra property funding for out-of-zone students.
Milford School in Auckland. Photo: Supplied
In the Milford area, rent prices are expensive and multiple families are living in the same house. Naylor said large scale immigration had also played a part in the school's skyrocketing numbers.
"In the Milford zone, we don't have necessarily big apartment blocks going up. But where one house will go, eight townhouses will replace it. Then on top of that you then get multiple families living in the same house."
She said big class sizes place pressure on teachers. Students who are neurodiverse also can not get adequate support in large classes.
"Post Covid the increase in neurodiverse behaviours in classrooms and children's readiness for school, there is definitely a shift there, so you add that into the mix with increased class sizes, our junior classes [are] particularly way bigger than I would like, but again we can't control that, so that puts a lot of pressure on teachers to teach more kids."
"It also puts pressure on our learning support resources, so learning assistance in classrooms."
A lower roll
But down the road, Campbells Bay School's roll has been declining over the past couple of years.
Principal Bevan Thomas said a lack of regeneration in the area and expensive houses have prevented young families from moving into the suburb.
"House prices in our zone are high, so it makes it very challenging for our young families to purchase homes. Also, because of those high land values, it's not appealing to developers to go put in a whole bunch of housing in our area.
"The last part also is a lot of schools are experiencing large roll growth due to immigration coming into their schools, but for us the current wave of immigration or migrants is not affecting Campbells Bay because of the type of work in our location the new migrants are here for."
This problem is also showing up in other suburbs in central Auckland.
A school principal in an affluent suburb that did not want to be named told Checkpoint the school was struggling to fill its roll as many young families can not afford to move into the area.
Grey Lynn School principal Alicia Whata said it was also not at full capacity.
She said her school's zone - which is in central Auckland - did not have many entry-level homes for young families to purchase or rent, and a lack of social housing.
There are 550 schools in Auckland, educating more than 294,000 children.
The Ministry of Education 2019 National Education Growth Plan said there was a need for 30 new schools in Auckland by 2030 and 21 schools need to expand.
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