Local schools begin the year this week, with burgeoning rolls and exciting plans in place across the district.

Te Kura o Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC), the only high school (years 7-13) in the Upper Clutha, has a starting roll of 1,300 students.

“Our focus for the year is on NCEA Level 1 implementation and the New Zealand Curriculum refresh. The college is also doing some work with professor Russell Bishop to support its teaching and learning programmes,” MAC principal Nicola Jacobsen said.

“Also, our new peer support programme will be valuable for our students (senior and junior) as it provides a fun and structured introduction for our new Year 7 students to make connections and adjust to life at our school under the guidance of senior students who have been trained as leaders.”

Wānaka Primary School is starting the year with around 470 students, similar to the start of the past two-to-three years, principal Wendy Bamford told the Wānaka App.

Wendy said she anticipates the roll reaching 550 by the end of the year.  

The school continues to have a stable staff, Wendy said, but last year the deputy principal Kerry Guise retired after 27 years and Jo Roberts resigned after 15 years. These positions have been taken up internally with Jennie Croxford becoming deputy principal and fixed term teachers picking up permanent roles that have been filled with fixed term positions until now, she added.

“Over the holidays we have had a lot of work done with our hall being repainted, our pirate ship repainted and currently the fences along the front of the school by Koru way and the bus lane are being replaced with 1.8m fencing by the Ministry of Education.”

Queenstown Lakes District Council is also building a bike path from Kelly's Flat to meet the bike path heading into MAC, Wendy said.

Te Kura O Take Karara principal Jodie Howard said the school staff were “refreshed and ready to go” as the year starts with 263 students and a further 70 to start throughout the year. 

“We have three new teachers joining our team this year too. We have the last of our playground developments for this stage of our school build due to be completed in the next month,” she said. 

The playground development “will allow for another play, gather, learn zone for our growing roll”, she added. 

“Term 1 is always an action packed term with the Challenge Wānaka triathlon, athletics, cricket, parent connection sessions, goal setting meetings, annual student achievement planning and teaching and learning programmes up and running.”

Holy Family Catholic School is gearing up for another action packed year with “some really exciting learning opportunities planned for our students”, principal Jo McKay said. 

“We start the year with a large number of new enrolments starting on day one to give us a full roll for 2024. We can not exceed our maximum roll of 225 each year. 

“We have our largest cohort of Year 7 and 8 students to date and will operate two classes in this area this year which is exciting.”

Hāwea Flat School principal Tania Pringle said the school continues to grow as the community grows.

“We expect to start [with] around 325 but will not know definitely until day one as we know a number of people have moved into and out of the community over the summer.  

“We expect to get to approximately 380 pupils by the end of the school year but once again this is dependent on the movement of those in our community. Even as we continue to grow we are focused on maintaining our rural school feel and embracing our local environment.”

Makarora School has the smallest roll in the Upper Clutha, with principal Rachel Brown estimating it will be the same as it was at the end of last year: just ten students from Year 1 to 6.

“We are all looking forward to another fantastic year at Makarora School,” she said.

Tarras School was approached for comment.