Ministry of Education pushes back on claims Gloriavale school shut down was rushed
The Ministry of Education has pushed back on claims the process to shut down Gloriavale’s school was rushed.
The ministry defended its decision to cancel the school’s registration in the High Court at Wellington during the second and final day of a judicial review challenging the move.
The Secretary for Education Ellen Macgregor-Reid has twice tried to close the West Coast Christian community’s school over student safety concerns.
On Tuesday, counsel for the ministry, Victoria Casey KC disputed Gloriavale’s position that the Secretary had only one day to consider relevant information before making her decision.
“She had one working day and a weekend, and with respect the level of annotation throughout the entire report… doesn’t support the submission that she didn’t pay proper attention to it.”
Casey said the entire process took five months which was neither truncated nor unfair – an argument that Gloriavale’s lawyer, Richard Raymond KC, did not accept.
Raymond and Casey also tussled over whether Macgregor-Reid’s second decision to cancel the 80-student school’s registration was a continuation of a process initiated in 2025 or a fresh examination.
Macgregor-Reid first moved to shut down the school in December last year, but it remains open due to the legal challenge by the school’s board.
She again confirmed the cancellation in September following a failed Education Review Office (ERO) report that found the school was not a physically and emotionally safe place for students.
Raymond argued the second review of the school had been a “fresh look” and the Secretary missed cruicial steps in the process, such as issuing a notice to comply.
But Casey said such a notice issued in July 2025 remained relevant and argued the school was “absolutely on notice” about the Secretary’s safety concerns pointing to December’s cancellation bid and a letter to the board in April.
Casey also challenged the request by Gloriavale for the Court to correct the record in relation to information provided to RNZ under the Official Information Act.
The “disputed information” reported by RNZ in June, concerned a letter from ERO to Oranga Tamariki expressing wellbeing concerns, including that Gloriavale’s school “knowingly employed staff with prior convictions unsuitable for work with children” and “in at least one instance, the school failed to act when behaviours placing students at risk were identified”.
Gloriavale argued the information was false, however, Casey said the Ombudsman rather than the Court was the appropriate place to raise such issues.
Although the “disputed information” wasn’t considered by the Secretary in her latest decision, Casey argued that the “substance of the concern was very real,” citing a teacher’s guilty plea to an historic assault and a recent complaint of an historic sexual assault committed by a staff member.
She said ERO had concluded there was a pattern of institutional failure to act on known risks to children.
Raymond asserted that the board had acted appropriately in response to the recently surfaced allegation.
Justice Karen Grau thanked the parties for the quality of their interesting but dense submissions, warning the public gallery packed with Gloriavale supporters that her decision would take time.
The Ministry of Education’s application to lift the interim orders preventing the school’s closure is to be considered at a later date.