A South Auckland school for troubled young people is to close next year.
Felix Donnelly College has been run by a commissioner since 2007 and the Education Review Office last year recommended that it be closed.
The college has 35 pupils, many of them in the care of Child, Youth and Family.
Education Minister Anne Tolley says the complex needs of those students at the school are not being met.
The Education Review Office says it continues to have serious misgivings about the quality of the programme provided, the safety of the students and the skills of many of the staff.
Mrs Tolley says the school will close in January next year and a new school will replace it in 2012. Until then, the students will be taught privately.
Dr Felix Donnelly founded the school in the 1960s and is saddened at news of its closure. He says he would have been willing to offer advice to the college, but was not approached.
