Charter school with Catholic ethos not a competitor: Diocese

Tōtara Point School is due to open in January on Manukau Rd, Epsom. The fee-free school would be open to students of all backgrounds and offer the Cambridge Primary international curriculum.

Trust board chair Jithendra Somaratne said the school respected Church teachings, but would not be governed by the Auckland Diocese.

James van Schie, Auckland Diocese general manager, said although the new school was independent, the founding families had made the Church aware of their plans.

“The school has not opened yet, but the early days of our relationship [are] warm and supportive. We expect this to grow over time,” he said.

“We don’t see this school as a competitor.”

Among the motivations for the families founding Tōtara Point School were the teachings of St Josemaria Escriva, who established Opus Dei, Mr Somaratne said.

Opus Dei priest Fr Sam Fancourt will be chaplain at the school. In a recent Facebook video, Fr Fancourt said “the school is going to help the students develop a relationship with God because God is at the very centre of the school”.

A chapel means God will be physically at the centre of the school, and faith and learning will be woven together throughout each school day, Fr Fancourt said.

Tōtara Point School’s model differs from the 238 state-integrated Catholic schools nationwide. Catholic schools follow the New Zealand national curriculum and a specially designed religious studies programme.

New Zealand Catholic Education Office chief executive Kevin Shore said the Church’s education team had little to do with charter schools, adding that the country’s Catholic bishops had signalled no interest in converting to charter schools.

“The reason we’re so committed to the state-integrated [character school] model is that there are very clear protections around special character that don’t exist under the charter school model,” Dr Shore said.

That included requiring a high percentage of teachers to be “special character” staff. In Catholic schools, that meant staff whose religious training was typically assessed by the local bishop.

Catholic primaries require 60 per cent of staff to meet this character. Charter schools required only one, Dr Shore said. That was a “key difference” for parents to understand, he said.

FULL STORY

Charter schools: Opus Dei-inspired Tōtara Point School to be taxpayer-funded (By Ben Leahy/New Zealand Herald)

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