Just another day at Gloriavale School

| Greymouth Star |Arianna Stewart |
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Months after the Ministry of Education announced it was closing down the Gloriavale Christian School, a Gloriavale spokesman says it is “business as usual”.

The end-of-year bombshell from the ministry, left 100 Gloriavale children and their families in limbo, facing uncertainty about the 2026 school year as they headed into the summer break.

The ministry said last year its decision followed a second failed audit by the Education Review Office, saying it also had concerns about the physical and emotional safety of children at the school.

It said the school management had provided insufficient evidence to assure the school was consistently meeting all the criteria for registration as a private school, and there was no evidence that giving more time to Gloriavale to do so would ensure compliance.

The ministry had been poised to cancel the school registration on January 23 — a week before the new school year.

However, Gloriavale challenged the decision in the High Court immediately after the ministry’s announcement, and won a reprieve from the court. Meantime, questions arose around where the 100 children displaced from the school closure would get their education in future.

The ministry had only just started working through options when it announced its decision, and it was two weeks before the January deadline that it confirmed any options.

Those were either the children doing correspondence through an on-site Te Kura hub, or parents could otherwise register their children at a State school, the closest being Lake Brunner School, 35km away in Moana.

Gloriavale Christian School board of trustees sought a judicial review at the 11th hour, winning a reprieve for the meantime; the ministry did not oppose the judicial review.

It is now the second term of the 2026 school year, and a Gloriavale spokesman confirmed the school was still open for the time being.

“We’re sitting tight, waiting for the judicial review and the legal process to be finished.”

He was aware the wider community had an interest in what was going to happen to the children, but said the board of trustees did not wish to make any statements as yet.

The spokesman said the judicial review was expected to be heard in September, so the school will stay open as normal this term and next.