School Donations

The Board of Trustees writes to its families each year to ask for a school donation. Whilst we appreciate that such donations are voluntary we hope that the following will help you understand why the Board makes this request.

Our school receives an annual operations grant that pays for the teaching resources and school administration that are fundamental to our purpose. This grant is also required to cover the longer term maintenance of the school buildings and grounds, and so each year we have to set aside part of the grant to pay for these significant non-annual costs

We are a decile 10 school, meaning our school community is in the highest socio-economic bracket measured in NZ, and we have a fantastic location here in the Bay. Unfortunately these factors also count against us in the funding game. The Ministry of Education pays us less funding per child than a lower decile school, and we do not receive any extra compensation for the high transport costs incurred in taking our children to educational opportunities over the hill. 

Our teachers’ salaries and payments for any capital improvements to classrooms are paid separately by the Ministry of Education, and as such cannot be used to pay for any operational costs.

In recent years we have faced an operational deficit as the costs of operating the school have continued to rise, and there has been no comparable increase in our operations grant.

For these reasons school donations make a huge and vital contribution to our school budget, enabling us to continue to provide high quality teaching resources for our children.

2011 school donation request