New Zealand's largest primary school has removed dozens of students from its roll, blaming the pandemic for disappearing students.
Finlayson Park School principal Shirley Maihi has spent 35 of her 56 year teaching career at the school. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Sela Jane Hopgood
Teachers at Finlayson Park School in Manurewa say they are at breaking point, as the Omicron outbreak continues to impact learning and attendance.
Just over half of students are attending the decile one school regularly, and it has been forced to take 40 students off the school roll because they have been missing for more than 20 days.
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With 46 classes ranging from years 1 to 8, and a roll just shy of 1000 students, Principal Shirley Maihi is Finlayson Park's heart and soul, having spent 35 years of her 56 year teaching career there.
The 80-year-old said the lingering toll the pandemic was taking had seen an average of just 52 percent of students attending school recently, while some had stopped coming altogether.
"I've been teaching for 56 years, and I have never seen anything like this before. We've been working extremely hard and putting in a lot of our own resourcing to try to get students back to school. We've got a group of students who haven't been to school most of this year.
"We've had to take 40 students off our role altogether that hadn't turned up and been away more than 20 days, which is the legal time you have to then take them off," Maihi said.
"Many of those 40 have not turned up in any other school. So that means they're out there in the community somewhere, or in somebody's community, but they're not going to school."
One teacher said she spent time each morning trying to track down students who had not turned up.
After taking the roll, she texted and called the families of those who were absent, following up on when the students would be returning to class.
"My main concern is getting these standards in the education back on track. It's about getting them confident to come back to school and just stressing the importance of education, while at the same time maintaining their mental health and building confidence.
"No matter what happens, children need an education, they need to be able to read and write, or if not that, they need the confidence to be able to participate."
Photo: RNZ Pacific / Sela Jane Hopgood
Before the pandemic, the staffroom would be bustling at lunchtime, with 60 teachers, 27 teacher aides and six hauroa support staff at Finlayson Park.
But on the day RNZ visited, it was three quarters empty.
One teacher said while she missed socialising with other teachers, many stayed away and had got out of the habit of using the staffroom for fear of catching the virus.
"I don't often come up to the staff room. I still like to socialize with the team, but it's easier to stay in your room with the windows open and take your mask off.
"When you come up to the staff room, even though it's not mandatory, we keep our masks on unless we're eating or drinking, and that's tough."
Just days into the third school term, she said these teachers were exhausted.
"Teachers are in survival mode. I know here at school they are just hanging in there. It's really, really hard."
She said children being absent from school for extended periods was causing their learning to suffer.
"I think the hardest thing is to really engage the kids. I teach new entrants, it's really hard to teach new entrants online.
"In the second lockdown parents just didn't want to hear from us, they were trying to survive themselves and just didn't want people interfering with their lives."
Principal Shirley Maihi said the staffing shortages were overwhelming.
Unable to find relief teachers at all, she had combined classes to keep lessons going.
"It's really made a person like me and others who have longevity in teaching really look at the methodologies that we have to put in place. Not just to teach, but to do all of the other social aspects around engaging parents, and providing for the educational programmes to be absolutely operating.
"We've never, ever had anything like this before, and it hasn't been easy to come up with ideas."
Every teacher in the staffroom was under pressure. Many did not want to go on the record, for fear it will turn young teachers off the profession.
In a statement, Ministry of Education operations and integration leader Sean Teddy said the government's attendance and engagement strategy that launched in June aims to tackle a decade-long decline in school attendance and engagement.
This would build on an $88 million attendance package already announced in the Budget, he said.