Officials give Cooperite school a pass
The Cooperite Christian sect’s Spring-1 bank school, in North Canterbury, is up to standard, says the Education Review Office.
The Ministry of Education has publicly aired reservations about the quality of the curriculum offered at ‘ Springbank, but the office’s first audit of the school has found it to be satisfactory.
Two other educational facilities run by the Cooperites were refused provisional licences by the ministry last October. The ministry was not satisfied with facilities or tuition at a school and an early childhood centre at Haupiri, on the West Coast. The Haupiri school was later allowed to operate without registration provided its facilities were brought up to scratch.
Since the Springbank audit, the Cooperites have auctioned their Canterbury property and shifted to Gloriavale, Haupiri.
The leader of the Cooperites, Neville Cooper, also known as Hopeful Christian, is on bail pending the preliminary hearing of indecency charges at the Cust property and on the Coast. He is due to appear for a depositions hearing on January 27.
The office’s just-released report says the Springbank school provided a balanced curriculum that covered the seven essential learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum Framework. Correspondence School courses provided specialist tuition in some areas.
In some instances programmes had been modified so their content was consistent with the sect’s beliefs. The Cooperite- school distinguished between girls and boys in the opportunities provided for students, the differences reflecting the community’s long-term expectations of the students as members of the community.