Hon Hekia Parata
Minister of Education
24 May 2013
Minister welcomes Rotorua education initiative
Education Minister Hekia Parata and Rotorua MP Todd McClay have announced a major initiative aimed at improving the
educational success of Rotorua’s children and young people.
Ms Parata says the new education-focused initiative is all about growing healthy, safe, well-educated children and young
people in Rotorua.
“This initiative will provide a unique opportunity to explore how a community-led approach can work to enhance
children’s learning. The programme will allow our communities to work with local schools and early childhood services to
deal with the issues that affect their children’s learning,” says Ms Parata.
The Rotorua education initiative is the first of its kind in the suite of government Social Sector Trials which focus on
improving social outcomes for young people in New Zealand. Six trials were launched in 2011 and a further 10 are being
set up in other communities around New Zealand starting in July 2013.
“We know children’s learning is influenced by a range of factors. While quality teaching and educational leadership have
the greatest impact on children and young people being successful learners, positive influences outside of this can add
to increased success,’’ says Ms Parata.
“Education success requires everyone in a young person’s community to be actively involved. The responsibility must
therefore be shared by early childhood educators, schools, families, whānau and communities.’’
Mr McClay says the Rotorua education initiative focuses on five important outcomes – getting more children into early
learning; ensuring more children have strong literacy and numeracy skills; increasing the number of young people leaving
secondary schools with NCEA Level 2; and making it much easier for them to enter into further education, training and
jobs. It will also aim to reduce risky behaviour including alcohol and drug use, sexual behaviour and offending.
“The first Social Sector Trials brought communities together to find local answers, to their local problems and issues.
The first trials have shown that they are a useful way to make the most of community resources and rally the community
behind getting better results for their young people,” Mr McClay says.
Mr McClay says Government had committed significant resources to enable communities to target specific local challenges
in ways that are appropriate for each community. Like the Children’s Team underway in Rotorua, professionals from the
education, health, justice and social services sectors will work together to implement the trials in partnership with
the local community.
“The Rotorua education initiative is focussed on children and young people aged 0 -18 years. It will be led by a
contracted local community organisation or individual employed by the Government. This is a huge opportunity to lead and
focus the resources of the Rotorua community on ensuring better educational success of our children.
“Its success will rely on everyone putting children and young people, and their learning and education first, and
working together to make this happen,” says Mr McClay.
Ms Parata and Mr McClay agree that a successful model in Rotorua could lead the way for similar approaches in other
communities.
ends