Requesting MOE consider dual zoning for Selwyn College and Glendowie College in Remuera, St Johns Auckland

To: Ministry of Education New Zealand

Re: parents requesting area around Grand Drive, Remuera and the whole of St Johns Park, be dual zoned for both Selwyn College and Glendowie College, Auckland 

We the undersigned would be most grateful if the MOE would urgently look into changing the zoning for the small area in Remuera and St Johns  (around Grand Drive, Remuera known as the St John’s Park zone) to ensure dual zoning for both Selwyn College as well as Glendowie College.  The reasons for this are as outlined below.

Our children have all, or currently, attend Meadowbank Primary, St Thomas Primay and Remuera Intermediate and have made friendships and relationships within these school communities.   If our teens attend Glendowie College, they will know virtually no one else at their new school.  In contrast, almost all their friends who have also attended Meadowbank Primary and Remuera Intermediate will be attending Selwyn College.  Strong friendships and relationships are known to be a protective factor for teens, and as such we would be very keen to ensure they continue to have their support base around them. 

We as a community value the “community spirit” and there are an increasing number of walking school buses to Meadowbank Primary, or groups of intermediate young people that choose to walk to Remuera Intermediate.  This has multiple positive impacts beyond just creating friendships.  It provides significant health benefits to young people – who are regularly physically active within their daily life.  It also reduces the number of cars on busy Auckland roads.  Our teens will not be able to walk to Glendowie College (approximately 12-13 km) from the current zoned area, however would easily be able to walk with their friends to Selwyn College (approximately 4km).  Selwyn College will be even more accessible from our area, once the Glenn Innes to Tamaki shared path is complete (due 2022) 

Finally, we believe there are reasons why this has become more of an issue recently.  Previously teens living in our area, whose family faced the same issues, were often able to get a place in Selwyn College by putting in an “out of zone” application.  However, we understand that Selwyn College is unlikely to be able to take many (possibly any?) out of zone applications in the future.  This is partly due to the fact that Selwyn College is now taking year 7 students from Stonfields School. We have had communication from Selwyn College both staff and board, and believe that they would be in support of a dual zoned area as there are unlikely to be huge numbers of teens coming from our area.   However we would be grateful if you could directly address this issue with Selwyn College and Glendowie College. 

We look forward to your response.  

Kind Regards

Genevieve Ostring    Contact the author of the petition