Schools

The impact on primary and secondary schools following the 2011 earthquakes.

Rebecca Harris

There were approximately 215 schools affected by the Canterbury Earthquakes. Many were severely damaged, leading to major overhauls in campuses, merging and closing of several schools, and greatly shifting attendance numbers. Hekia Parata heavily dictated many of the discussions at the time, as her and her ministry’s decisions made a lot of impact on the schooling communities of Christchurch.

The Ministry of Education created a series of proposals that many Christchurch residents found controversial, leading to years of debate, discourse, and at times, legal action. However, some schools were happy to embrace Parata's proposals.

Some schools were rebuilt or repaired where they were, others merged down into larger schools, and some were permanently closed. One learning cluster in Aranui even became a super-school, Haeata Community Campus - the first of its kind in the city. The number of closures were partially due to damage and partially motivated by the Ministry of Education's intention to reduce the number of schools Christchurch had due to its shifting population size.

As of current day, there are approximately 137 schools within Christchurch.

The content on this page relates to the effect on primary and secondary schools, school buildings, and school children of the 2011 earthquake, including both information released at the time, and later discussion. This will not include pre-schools and early childhood centres.

Photograph of the Cathedral Grammar School Main Clock, 2 Chester Street West (3). Katherine Watson, published by Heritage New Zealand.

Personal Stories / Media engaging with children:

• Earthquake-Shakeup was a public wiki established in 2010 in response to the September quake. It was a resource aimed towards children, featuring both educational resources as well as places to share thoughts and experiences.
  • A subsection of this site is whenmyhomeshook.co.nz, which was “a website dedicated to helping Canterbury School children overcome the recent earthquake by providing a plaform [sic] where they can openly share their personal earthquake stories”. It contains many short stories or poems by schoolchildren at the time.
• The Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) also ran educational programmes where they went to schools and taught children about safety around construction sites, which were extremely prevalent after the earthquakes.
  • Feedback form from Richmond School is a review of the programme by a teacher. Dated 15th February 2013.
  • Resources about SCIRT on QuakeStudies has more, including an example of the exercises given to children during the programme.

BeckerFraserPhotos May 2012 photograph 228. Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Is this digger training school? St Margaret's College, Winchester Street".

Photographs

There is a large database of photographs on CEISMIC, especially within the ‘school’ search. The most effective keyword search for looking at damage to schools is school* NOT 2010, image filter applied.

The photographs throughout this page are some of the best displays of both the damage that Christchurch schools took as a result of the 2011 earthquakes, and the temporary and adaptive measures they underwent as a result.

BeckerFraserPhotos March 2011 photograph 076. 2011. Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, “16 March 2011. Redcliffs School with the rock fall behind which is the reason the school is closed”.

Audio Files:

• Christchurch schools post-quake. 25:02. 28 March 2011. Nine to Noon. Radio New Zealand - Captioned: “There are fears that Christchurch secondary students’ educations will continue to suffer as their school days are condensed in the aftermath of the earthquake.”
• Christchurch quake has changed private school bastion for ever. 2:45. 5 July 2011. Checkpoint. Radio New Zealand - Captioned: “Private schools in Christchurch have asked the government for help as they try to cope in the aftermath of February's earthquake.”
• Govt accused of exploiting quakes to push school closures. 3:08. 14 September 2012. Morning Report. Radio New Zealand - Captioned: “The government is being accused of exploiting the Christchurch earthquake to force through sweeping changes to schools in the city.”
• School closures driven by need to reduce number of schools.  2:53. 1 October 2013. Checkpoint. Radio New Zealand - Captioned: “It's been revealed earthquake damage was only one factor considered by the Ministry of Education when it decided to close schools in Christchurch and that it was just as much to do with reducing the overall number of schools in the city.”
• Minister sticks by plan to close or merge Christchurch schools. 2:46. 29 May 2013. Checkpoint. Radio New Zealand - Captioned: “The Minister of Education has stuck with her proposals in February to close or merge earthquake-hit Christchurch schools, with the exception of some New Brighton.” schools.
• Chch English language schools far from recovered. 3:49. 4 March 2015. Morning Report. Radio New Zealand - Captioned: “Four years after the Christchurch earthquakes, English language student numbers are still only just over half what they were before the 2011 quake.”

BeckerFraserPhotos March 2012 photograph 094. Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Morning break at Avonside Girls High". It shows the portacoms that were present at Avonside Girls High.

Research Papers:

These papers study the way children’s relationship to both education has been affected by the Canterbury earthquakes. They are from as early as 2012 and as recent as present day.

• “Implementing blended E-learning strategies in disaster response mode and beyond: Stories from Teacher Education”. 6 May 2012. Mackey, J. - The slides from Mackey’s presentation on e-learning.
• “Helping, caring and learning: strengths in new entrants settling into and learning in primary school in post-earthquake Christchurch”. 2013.  Carter, A L. University of Canterbury - 17 five-year-old children were interviewed to analyse the way they brought resilience and other strengths with them starting new schools, considering both Western and Māori models of wellbeing.
• “The impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes on educational inequalities and achievement in Christchurch secondary schools”. 2013. Connolly, M J. University of Canterbury - Analyses the effects of the earthquakes on student performance via NCEA results, including comparing site-sharing schools and non-site-sharing schools.
• “When Terra is no longer Firma: Enabling wellbeing by helping children to be reflective, relational and resilient learners”. 2015. Jamieson, S. University of Canterbury - Examination of how wellbeing exercises can be taught to schoolchildren in order to help them cope with the effects of the earthquakes. Considers both Western and Māori schools of thought.
• “Descriptions of coping with commonly occurring events by highly self-regulated boys living in earthquake-affected Christchurch”. 2015. Gillman, S H. University of Canterbury - Explores the coping strategies and techniques of affected children with “adequate self-regulation skills and minimal behaviour problems”.
• “The key components to creating effective collaborative teaching and learning environments”. 2016. O’Reilly, N. University of Canterbury - Examines the new kinds of learning spaces implemented post-quake, with a focus on Flexible Learning Spaces and collaborative teaching in Australia and New Zealand to gauge what will be important when implementing in Christchurch.
• “The effect of drawing lessons on hyperarousal in children who experienced the Canterbury Earthquakes”. 2017. Adams, J. University of Canterbury - Studies “whether a 20-minute drawing lesson during the afternoon of the school day would reduce stress in children with hyperarousal symptoms,” as many children post-2011 quakes are experiencing.
• “Facilitating teachers’ reflections on their affect 18 months after the February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake”. 2019.  O’Toole, V M. University of Canterbury - Presents a subset of findings from interviews with schoolteachers about their experiences during the earthquakes, with interest towards what they saw, heard, and felt.
• “Legacies of closure : a history of Aranui High School 1960-2016.” 2019. van Vuuren, Lisa M. University of Canterbury - This thesis examines the closure of Aranui High School and its historical and cultural place in the Christchurch’s eastern suburbs.
• “It’s about the most needy children”: A Foucauldian analysis of school social workers’ responses to need in post-earthquake Canterbury”. 2020. Tudor, R. University of Canterbury - An analysis of social workers and the different kinds of support post-earthquake children need (hardship-based, anxiety-based), through the lens of Foucault.

Photograph by Neil Macbeth 557. Photograph is captioned, “The front quad of Christ's College with the school buildings all around. Part of the awning of the building in front has crumbled, and there is also damage to the gable above.”