Gloriavale School carries on for now

| Greymouth Star | Brendon McMahon and Arianna Stewart |
Subscription Only

A Gloriavale Christian Community spokesman confirmed yesterday the Ministry of Education had not opposed the application by the Gloriavale School for a judicial review of the ministry’s decision to shut the school.

The spokesman said a successful application for the judicial review by the board of trustees had effectively put the ministry’s direction to close “on hold”.

This had given some relief for families at the Lake Haupiri community in the meantime as the school was able to continue to operate as normal for the first half of the school year.

“There’s a lot of relieved parents,” the spokesman said.

However, a month into the school year, the ministry had still not made it clear what alternative education path it planned to put in place for Gloriavale following the closure decision in December.

“The timing of what they did made it difficult for us to respond and difficult for us to (plan) for the next year,” the spokesman said.

“We’re just basically sitting tight.” As for the alternative option of homeschooling, which had also been left up in the air according to the Gloriavale spokesman, any path forward on that was now subject to the judicial review which had been accepted by the courts and was expected to be heard mid-year.

The decision to close the school altogether had come as “a shock” for the board of trustees and followed a protracted period of “to-ing and fro-ing” with the ministry.

Meantime, the ministry is not saying why it had not challenged Gloriavale’s judicial review application.

“Gloriavale’s judicial review is before the court, so we won’t comment on the application itself,” Ministry of Education acting director of education, Nelson, Marlborough West Coast, Carly Ave, told the Greymouth Star.

“Alongside that process, we’re actively developing options to support the students’ education. We’re looking at several possible approaches, and this work will help make sure the students continue to have access to appropriate education.”

The ministry would not comment further.