# Kapiti Coast Schools



## MerryMiller

I all,

We are awaiting confirmation of visas (eeek) and are actively looking at being based in the Kapiti area north of Wellington.

We have three young kids 11,10 & 8 and need to find an area with good schools.

Can anyone help with advice on schools and area to live?

Miller


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## escapedtonz

MerryMiller said:


> I all,
> 
> We are awaiting confirmation of visas (eeek) and are actively looking at being based in the Kapiti area north of Wellington.
> 
> We have three young kids 11,10 & 8 and need to find an area with good schools.
> 
> Can anyone help with advice on schools and area to live?
> 
> Miller


Hi Miller,
Beautiful part of the NI up the Kapiti coast. Bit too far away from work in Wellington CBD for me but can understand why lots of people head up that way.
Sorry cant really help with schools as our toddler only 18 months old. It took 2 weeks for us to decide on a nursery so not looking forward to choosing a school!!!
I assume you know about decile ratings n all that jazz ?
Plenty of info on t'internet about this.
Not a reflection of how a school performs, but a score calculated using 5 specific factors and surprisingly nowt to do with the school.....

Family income of child's household
Occupation of child's parents
Numbers in household
Educational qualifications of parents
Income support - if parents receiving benefits

All worked out as percentages to make up a decile score which is applied to that school and as such 1 is lowest and 10 is highest.
The only reason schools are rated like this is because of funding. Allows the MOE to allocate funding in the fairest way.
Does not reflect the quality of education or staff at a school.

Anyway, people in real life use the score to pick a school as one would generally believe that if a school has a high decile score then the area surrounding that school - who's kids attend must have parents who are well educated, have good well paid jobs, low numbers of people in the homes and aren't on benefits etc which makes one think the school is fantastic.....
This is the misconception and sometimes far from the truth so be careful and do your homework.
Also much like the UK, I'm sure schooling is zoned so you have to live in the zoning area to get in a particular school.

As regards places to live on the Kapiti coast I couldn't diss any. All look nice to me.
Have a colleague who lives at Paekakariki (pronounced Pi-cock-areeki) which is v nice but so too is Raumati, Paraparaumu and Waikanae.
Must admit we like Paraparam quite a lot. Has a nice frontage to the beach, nice park etc with decentish shopping nearby. Beach is massive but very windswept.

Where will be your place of work and how long are you prepared to travel ?


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## MerryMiller

Hi escapedtonz, 

Only just starting to look into the schools thing which is quite confusing for us. We could do with some straight forward advice!! 

I'll be working from home and on the road between Wellington and up as far as Hawkes Bay. Eventually opening an office in Wellington.

We notice the rental prices drop the further away from Wellington and are looking at the Kapiti Coast as per some recommendations from other posts.

The wife will be stay at home to begin with and hence we would need an area with some things for her to do during the day whilst the kids are at school and I'm at work.

Raumati Beach, Paraparaumu looks nice too.

Hope this helps?


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## escapedtonz

MerryMiller said:


> Hi escapedtonz,
> 
> Only just starting to look into the schools thing which is quite confusing for us. We could do with some straight forward advice!!
> 
> I'll be working from home and on the road between Wellington and up as far as Hawkes Bay. Eventually opening an office in Wellington.
> 
> We notice the rental prices drop the further away from Wellington and are looking at the Kapiti Coast as per some recommendations from other posts.
> 
> The wife will be stay at home to begin with and hence we would need an area with some things for her to do during the day whilst the kids are at school and I'm at work.
> 
> Raumati Beach, Paraparaumu looks nice too.
> 
> Hope this helps?


Yeah I can understand why the schools issue is confusing. Doesn't seem to be any way of finding out how good one school performs against others in the area other than with this decile score - which as you know hasn't any relationship to performance. Seems a bit of a catch 22.
Unfortunately can't help you with that one. All I could recommend is looking on the Internet at Kapiti coast education services and maybe getting in touch with them for direct advice.

If you are working part at home and part on the road between Welly and Hawks Bay then you won't mind the driving times then.
It's a good 4 1/2 hours between Welly and Napier with no traffic. We drove up to Napier a couple of weeks ago for a weekend break and it's a long journey for somewhere not really that far away but it's just the way it is here.
Maybe want to think about commuting distance/time to an office in Welly.
Your talking a good 45 mins - 60 mins from Paraparmumu depending on the time of day and how much your willing to push the 'tiny' speed limit. Not all dual carriageway unfortunately. Some decent bits of 80/70/50kmh speed limits in that trip.

Yeah the rental prices definitely drop the further north you go from Welly but you really don't have to go so far away. I'd say when you get over 20km away the prices start to even out. You could try a bit nearer maybe Porirua area. Whitby is really nice and a few other areas around there. This area also has access to the inlet and the sea, beaches.
You did mention you would like to be near a beach didn't you ?
Is this just for the kids to run around or walking the dog or are you major sunworshippers ?
If its the latter then your a bit stuffed as the majority of beaches are very windswept. Beach at Paraparam is massive and goes on miles but covered in driftwood. It also continues up to Otaki etc where its has plenty of 4x4's on it - fishing and sailing people. There's a nice one at Scorching Bay on the other side of Welly for kids and sunbathing but not much else other than a cafe & a spot of grass for picnic.
Really nice beaches up north Bay Of Plenty especially Mount Maunganui but a long way - 8 / 9 hrs drive.

Raumati South and Paraparam both equally nice, however don't know what the schools are like.

My wife is a stay at home mama also.....well our little whirlwind just started kindy for 2 days so she has a bit more spare time now. There are plenty things to do with the kids when they are off school in any of the areas you are looking. Kids clubs and meets all over.
What does your wife want to do with her time when kids are at school ?
If its shopping then Porirua not bad for it. Paraparam ok but it's more your business park type of shops which are along the state highway no 1 at the Paraparam junction.
Porirua has everything condensed into a town centre with a newish shopping precinct.
Lower Hutt is probably best for shopping out of the area IMO but it's a bit of a trek over the hills or down SH1 and up SH2 from Kapati to get there.


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## carosapien

Don't worry too much about the decile ratings, the ERO are dropping them soon. 
Education Review Office drops decile ratings from... | Stuff.co.nz 
School decile rating drop applauded | Stuff.co.nz

Everything will be performance rated and league tabled. National standards are being introduced and not before time. That should buck-up a few schools and enable parents to make far more informed decisions. National Standards - Ministry of Education


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