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Wednesday 16 November 2011
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Staff to go at Salisbury Salisbury School is to shed up to 12 staff members before Christmas, says its principal. The move comes as the government pushes to get more special needs students into mainstream schooling, dropping the number of students enrolled at the school. Salisbury School, in Richmond, can cater for 80 special needs students from all over New Zealand. Currently it has 68 pupils on its roll but principal Brenda Ellis says only 45 are enrolled for next year; the drop in numbers means between 10 and 12 residential staff will be made redundant. The teaching staff will remain unaffected. Brenda says the school is looking towards a bright future, but with more students being integrated into mainstream schools, they will have to look at how they adapt to support other schools. The government policy to bring more special needs students into mainstream schooling was started around a decade ago by the Labour government. Maitai School is another specialist special needs school, but its principal Diane Whyte says its roll is growing and the school is evolving to supply support to other schools. “At the moment we are providing support for five students in mainstream schools and we can see that growing. It’s an area where we can offer our specialist skills,” she says. Brenda was upbeat about the future of Salisbury; she says it’s never nice to lose staff but the school was remaining positive. She says next year’s roll could still grow. Redundancies will be made before the Christmas break “so families have some certainty”, says Brenda.
The
A foot in the right direction Phillip Rollo Tom Stringer has two reasons to attack the track this season. The Waimea College runner is hoping a national medal and a sub 3 minute 56 second 1500m can put him in the shop window for a US College scholarship. Tom, who represented New Zealand during the cross country season, is now Nelson’s premier middle distance runner and will get one major hit out at the Harold Nelson Classic on November 26, before tackling New Zealand’s best secondary school athletes in December. Tom’s current 1500m personal best is 4 minutes 1 second, but he’s confident of getting that time down before the season’s end. “I’m probably in the best shape I’ve been in so I’m reasonably confident,” says Tom. Tom earned silver in the 1500m at the New Zealand Track and Field Championship at the start of the year and puts all of his success down to National Academy of Long Distance Running head coach Greg Lautenslager. In a regular week Tom will clock up between 50 to 100 kilometres in ON TRACK: 1500m runner Tom Stringer is hoping a personal best, along with a training. medal at the New Zealand Secondary School Athletics Championship, will see him Tom started the season with a win in pick up a college scholarship from the United States. Photo: Phillip Rollo. the latest Athletics Nelson meet.
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