Vanguard Military School

Stuff reports:

The Green Party has attacked the Government’s charter school policy after one school’s roll dropped by a quarter this year – but Vanguard Military School says that’s because its students have qualified and moved on to other courses.

The North Shore charter school, which starts every day with a military parade, had 79 students attending in October this year – 25 per cent below the 108 it was funded to teach, Green Party education spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty said. …

But Vanguard Milliary School chief executive Nick Hyde said roll numbers had dropped because students had already passed their qualifications and had moved on to other courses, including some in the military or, in a few cases, at other schools.

“The reality is these kids have gained the qualification they signed up for, and we should be celebrating that, not throwing stones at them.”

He said 41 out of 45 students sitting NCEA level 2 this year had already passed the course, and 84 per cent of students had passed level 1.

So this is what the Greens are against – a 90% pass rate for NECA Level 2 among students who traditionally have very low pass rates.

Delahunty said she disputed that education was about getting children over the line and then moving them on.

“It doesn’t stop because they’ve had one assessment.

Vanguard is only set up for NCEA Level 1 and 2. But Catherine will be pleased a solution is in sight.

However, Hyde said taxpayers were getting “good value for money” with charter schools, which were “making an impression” on the 20 per cent of students who were not succeeding in other schools.

“If they’ve got their level 2 qualification and don’t want to do level 3, then why should we make them stick around until the end of the year when they could be going on to do other things?”

Next year the school roll would increase to 144 students, when the school expanded to include NCEA level 3.

Excellent.