Parents in the Northland town of Moerewa are considering correspondence school as an option for their children following the closure of a senior unit at their local school.
The Ministry of Education has told Moerewa Primary School it can no longer run classes for Years 11, 12 and 13 students after an audit found only a third were achieving NCEA in literacy and numeracy.
It replaced the board of trustees with a commissioner last week, after the school resisted efforts to close the unit.
One parent has told Radio New Zealand that families met commissioner Mike Eru for the first time on Monday.
She said Mr Eru seemed willing to listen to the parents who are determined to keep the 15 senior students together in Moerewa.
The parent, who did not want to be named, says while a number of students might not have passed NCEA English and Mathematics, they have done well in other subjects and there has been no truancy.
She said the parents looked at enrolling their children at the kura kaupapa at Moerewa but that proved problematic because not all of them are fluent in te reo Maori.
The parent says the best option now appears to be a Correspondence School group and that Mr Eru had promised to investigate, and get back to the parents as soon as possible.
