Where young teens thrive or 'waste of time'

A proposal in 2018 to abolish the intermediate school system in New Zealand was dropped. But opinion remains divided on whether intermediate schools are needed. Katy Jones reports.

Some parents in Nelson are going out of their way to avoid sending their children to intermediate school.

For many families in the city, the schools – for year 7 and 8 students – are the only choice for children of that age (11 - 13.)

Most primary schools within the city boundary only go up to year 6.

Schooling options before high school at year 9, are state co-ed intermediates (one zoned, one not) or two private intermediates.

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There are also two primaries that include years 7 and 8 (“full primaries”) – which cater mainly for children from Christian backgrounds.

Clare (not her real name) was so keen to avoid sending her children to their local state intermediate she re-evaluated her priorities and sent them to the nearest full primary.

She came from a country where children only went to primary then secondary school.

“It made no sense to me to take my kids out of one school and put them in another for two years. I swore I’d never send my kids to a Catholic school, but I did ... because I didn’t want the alternative.”

She believed students at intermediate missed out from not having older student leaders around them to act as role models or “a conduit between pupils and faculty”.

Being in schools with a wider span of years provided a social hierarchy that helped young teens “find their place within themselves and within the world”, she said.

“Kids of that age, in such a state of transition, really don’t need to be all lumped in together to figure it out for themselves.”

Some parents of past and present intermediate school pupils disagreed – saying their children weren’t ready to mix with much older teens when they finished primary.

One said there was “enough going on” for 11-13 year olds as they started going through puberty.

Another, Tracy Marfell, initially found intermediate school an “unusual concept”, after arriving back in New Zealand from Australia.

But she now saw the logic, she said.

Her children only started going through puberty at intermediate or high school, and it was comforting knowing her children weren’t being “thrown into a school” with a lot of other children a lot older than them.

Intermediates also helped students stand on their own feet.

“I remember my first child going to intermediate and at the assembly on the first day they said ‘this is where your parents leave you at the gate, there’s no more mums or dads meeting you at your classroom, this is where the independence starts’.”

In Richmond, 7km from Nelson, some primary school parents lamented plans that would prevent their children from going to the town’s intermediate.

Two primaries have opted to expand from year 1-6 schools to full primaries under Ministry of Education proprosals for accommodating population growth - a move that would see the schools eventually removed from the intermediate enrolment zone.

Some parents worried that would strip children of opportunities provided at the intermediate to pursue interests, and the chance to make new friends.

The primary schools said most people in their communities liked the idea of children of completing their primary schooling in a familiar environment, with just one transition from primary to secondary school.

A woman who sent her children to the existing full primary school in Richmond said there was a sense that intermediates were “a waste of time”.

By the time students got used to being there they had to start over again at high school, and many students were too busy “trying to fit in” to focus on school work, she said.

They also had less responsibility than their counterparts at primary, who were given leadership tasks and encouraged to be caring towards younger students, she said.

The principal of Broadgreen Intermediate in Nelson, Pete Mitchener, said while some children loved having a smaller school environment and their time in it as a leader, others were “really ready for that next step”.

Intermediate schools were an “exciting environment” for students, he said. The schools were more relevant than they had ever been, with children having disengaged from hobbies and the community during Covid-19.

"A big part of intermediates is coming together, all of the same age, and being exposed to new interests, new activities, new cultural items, music items and sports groups.”

Some full primaries might be able to offer those kinds of opportunities, he said.

But from his experience teaching at both a full primary and intermediate, it was easier for intermediates to do that because the schools were bigger, he said.

Of six parents of past and present students at the school spoken to by Stuff, five said their children had fared well there – three said their children thrived.

One said it was disruptive for her daughter, who was only just starting to find her feet with six months left to go at the school, and about to start the process all over again at high school.

Mitchener said there were opportunities for the intermediate students to be part of programmes at the high school opposite the intermediate, and the intermediate continued to work on an integrated curriculum flowing from contributing primaries to the high school.

Middle schools, for years 7 -10, could help ease disruption, but the school didn’t have the space to grow the school into one, Mitchener said.

It “would have been interesting to explore a middle school” under changes in the schooling network in Richmond, he said.

The Ministry of Education had proposed a new primary school for the area, alongside switching outlying primary schools to full primaries.

The ministry said it worked with a steering group from local schools to develop options for managing growth for the catchment, and engaged with the community on three of them.

A report in 2018 by a government-appointed taskforce reviewing the schooling sector, proposed phasing out the intermediate system, suggesting it was "unnecessarily disruptive to learner pathways” and more stability was needed for children in early adolescence.

But the proposal in the interim “Tomorrow’s Schools Review” was not included in the final report.

Bali Haque, who chaired the taskforce, said public consultation showed there were “too many issues with people not sold on the idea."

"The interim report would have required major structural changes ... and we came to the conclusion that just tinkering with the intermediate school on its own without the overall bigger changes, was probably going to create more opposition than we thought would be necessary."

Haque still felt that intermediates should be phased out. The system was “a nonsense”, he said.

Intermediate schools were quite rare globally - he wasn't aware of any other jurisdictions that had two-year intermediates.

"By the time you've got to know the students, they've left."

Research on middle schools indicated positive results from staying in a school for longer, and showed that that age group could “do with a different sort of teaching approach”.

"Having senior colleges which are focused more on qualifications seemed like a good way of releasing middle schools to do other stuff."

Middle schools and senior college “were beginning to happen” in New Zealand, but weren’t common, tending to happen mostly with new schools he said.

It was a complicated process for existing schools to organise themselves that way, he said.

There were 114 state and two private intermediates in Aotearoa.

Most population centres would have them, while some areas didn’t have a large enough population for intermediates – with composite schools for Years 1- 13 in rural areas, and full primaries.

There were also full secondary schools for years 7-13, like Te Paepae o Aotea which merged Hāwera Intermediate and Hāwera High schools.

Principal of Evans Bay Intermediate School in Wellington, Howard Young, said intermediates offered students aged 11-13 opportunities other schools couldn’t, because they were designed specifically for the emerging adolescent.

Targeted support programmes, and being at a similar stage of development as other students, had advantages for them, he said.

There were also teachers dedicated to that age group, he said.

Students at intermediate school should be funded the same as intermediate-aged students in a middle school, which were funded better because they tied into the secondary funding model, he said.

19-year-old Victoria University student, Ethan Cordes said his time at an intermediate in Auckland was “a very intense two years” – but he preferred that to the idea of a middle school or full primary.

While four years in school between primary and college would make it easier to make and keep friends than at intermediate, a short gap at a school between primary and college was useful to learn how to switch to a high school style of education, he said.

Two years for that was perfect, he said.

“If you ... have to go to the same school for four years at that age you would get a bit angsty because you’re like I’ve been around this area since I was a child ... I can’t wait to get out of here.”

It was probably better for students to start at college at year 9 than year 11, he said.

“You’re fresh into everything, you’re freshly a teenager, it’s a fresh school.”