Coromandel families moving so children can stay at school

A major landslide taking out more than 100 metres of State Highway 25A in the Coromandel has come between students and their schools.

It has seen a return to online learning for some students, while parents look to buy or rent property to get their kids closer to their schools.

Brett Collins, owner of Tairua Butchery, sent his 15-year-old son over the hill to Hauraki Plains College in Ngatea - normally a 50-minute trip.

But with the state highway out of action, the long way was now the only way, and it had become an unsustainable commute of more than four hours a day.

"[He's got] two years of high school left and we're home-schooling him right now to avoid two and a quarter hours either way on the bus."

Collins said Covid-19 lockdowns had opened up the possibilities of online learning, but for practical subjects like engineering and physical education, online learning alone would not suffice.

Whangamatā Area School ran from Year 1 to 13, but Collins said moving schools in his son's senior year would not be ideal.

Instead, he was looking for a property his wife and son could rent over the hill in Ngatea.

"We haven't heard any concrete information on the opening of the hill at the moment," Collins said.

"Our decision's based around the facts of that opening. At this stage we're just going to go term by term."

Principal of Hauraki Plains College Sharon Moller said although the privately run Tairua Bus Company had changed its route to go the long way through Waihi, about 10 students had opted to learn from home for the time being.

To keep them connected, she had established a satellite class in Tairua where a teacher travelled to meet students each Friday.

Because of the road collapse, the free Ministry of Education bus from Tairua to Thames High School had stopped running, and students had to make their own arrangements to get there.

Year 13 student Rosie Juby had been staying with a friend in town.

"It's quite a big deal because I was just about to be able to drive over on my own.

"Now I have to go the long way around to school," Juby said.

"I usually drive over on Sunday night and then stay at a friend's for the week. I've kind of been living out of my car. And then I drive back over [to Tairua] on the weekends."

Though it could be unsettling, for Juby it was a better option than attempting to study from home.

"I don't do amazing at online learning, because we've had Covid obviously, and that was a bit of a struggle.

"I could do it, but I'd way rather be at school, in the environment here."

School principal Michael Hart said while he was confident students could succeed through online learning, subjects like drama and technology were by nature more difficult.

Some parents at his school were also looking to make the move over the hill.

"I've got a couple of families who are considering moving and getting accommodation on this side, both for work and for school, because one of the families is affected in terms of their employment as well."

Despite the obstacles in place, so far just one former Thames student had opted for a school closer to home and enrolled at Whangamatā Area School.

Whangamatā principal Alistair Luke said while the school was near capacity with 570 students, there was room for about 15 more at a stretch.

"The vast majority of our students who come to school come from within our zone anyway, so we do have a little bit of capacity there, but with significant growth over the last five years, things are getting quite tight from a space point of view."

But Luke's main concern was not fitting the students in; it was their safety as more heavy traffic was diverted right past the school gate - by his reckoning, an increase of about 50 percent due to the slip.

"Our main road into town is now essentially the main road onto the eastern seaboard."

Geotechnical engineers had completed early assessments of State Highway 25A using drones, but could not use drills for further assessments until the area had dried out.

And with Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle bearing down, the region's students may face more of a wait to find out the fate of their road.