Tipene reopening overwhelmingly popular with parents

<h2>St&period; Stephen&&num;8217&semi;s School is looking to reopen in 2020 and the waiting list for M&amacr;ori boys to enrol is already nearing 150&period; <&sol;h2>&NewLine;<h2>A number of hui over the past three months have been organised by the TIPENE oldboys Association for parents interested in sending their boys to the new St&period; Stephen&&num;8217&semi;s School&period; More than 400 have had the opportunity to discuss the new model and to hear about its unique focus and anticipated outcomes&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>According to Joe Harawira &lpar;Chair of the oldboys association&rpar; many of those attending have been M&amacr;ori mothers desperate for solution to the education of their boys&period; These concerns have now prompted wider discussions on need for more active investment into M&amacr;ori boys education&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Harawira notes that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;while we are all aware of the poor educational outcomes for M&amacr;ori students&comma; we now know that within this group it is our boys who are suffering the most&comma; it is our boys who are disproportionately burdened across almost every indicie&comma; and our boys who subsequently suffer the negative effects later in life&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;In spite of the data – there is no targeted strategy or policy with a focus on M&amacr;ori boys”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Harawira goes on to say that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;M&amacr;ori boys are more likely than any other ethnic group &lpar;male or female&rpar; to leave school with little or no formal qualifications – that’s a fact&comma; but its also a crisis”&period; He further notes that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A new Tipene will not be the panacea to these issues&comma; but it will provide an option which is not currently available and which M&amacr;ori parents appear to be desperate for”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A registration site for interested parents was launched a little over two months ago and already almost 150 parents have formally enrolled their boys into the school&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tipenereopening&period;nz&sol;register&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">here<&sol;a>&period; Harawira’s final thoughts&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are about a year out from reopening Tipene and already we have a long waiting list – what does that tell you about the demand for this school&quest; Parents no longer ask why we reopening&comma; but why cant we do it sooner”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;