What is a charter school?

Charter schools are public schools, but instead of a school board, they are operated by a sponsor - an organisation that has signed a contract with the Crown to operate the school.

Charter schools have considerable flexibility around teaching, curriculum, governance, hours and days of operation. They can decide how to use their funding and can set their own curriculum. In exchange for this greater autonomy, charter schools are accountable for delivering outcomes via their contract.

Some charter schools may focus on students who are underachieving or disengaged from the education system.

These students may have learning challenges or simply need to be in an environment which provides different ways of learning. Some may be chronic absentees; others may be neuro diverse. Others may learn best if the environment reflects their culture.

Other charter schools may teach students in a different language, for example, or have an approach that reflects specific talents, such as art.

But they all offer diverse choices so students can learn in ways that more closely meets their needs.

Charter schools complement, strengthen and diversify New Zealand’s education system and create new options in areas of the country where there may be fewer choices.

There are two different pathways to create charter schools. They may be a new school which offers a different approach or value to the schooling network or they can be an existing state school that converts to become a charter school. This may be because the school community is looking for more freedom in the way that they run their school. It may also be because a Minister directs that a poor performing school must become a charter school.