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Regional | Education

Northland school rises against all odds

A small Northland school that faced closure now has a full student roll after adopting the International Baccalaureate programme for primary school children.  Formerly known as Te Tii School, it is now known as the Bay of Islands International Academy.

Three years ago, you could count the number of students at this school on one hand.   Today, it has a roll of 103 students and even more on the waiting list.

Principal Sean McDermott says, “I think we have kids who are happy at school their safe in, they love learning, and they have dreams and aspirations. They believe they can achieve them.”

Ringapoto Herewini Tipene who has grandchildren at the school says, “The local people gave full consideration to this International Baccalaureate programme and saw that it could be of great benefit for the school.

This is it. We've reached the stage where we've achieved that.”

Students who began their schooling here have witnessed dramatic changes since the school's name changed from Te Tii School to "The Bay of Islands International Academy".

“There was only like seven of us here and yeah most of them were seniors,” says student Toha Kemp.

“We couldn't do it without the people because we need helpers and the teachers to plan it and they all nice,” says student Billie Gene Wynyard.

The rapid change has come about in no small way through approval by the Overseas Investment Office for international investors to support this school and in doing so, they are given the right to purchase land in NZ.

Despite this investment, the principal says that like a number of schools in the region, they are still in the recovery phase.

McDermott says, “We've done really well to reach this point but the schools recovery continues.  You know we've got challenges infrastructure the quality of the buildings learning spaces resources all these sorts of things.”

Tipene says, “This programme has enabled the third generation of our family to go to school here with my grandchild currently attending it. That's of utmost importance to me.”