Job Discussion Forums

[pandg]

Good morning

I am in the process of applying for jobs in New Zealand, and very often see jobs advertised with something that looks like this: U6, decile 6. I know what the decile rating is, but if somebody could help me with what the U plus a number means it would be much appreciated.

[mmcmorrow]

The 'U' rating is a code for the size of the school roll - as follows:

1-50 U1
51-100 U2
101-150 U3
151-300 U4
301-500 U5
501-675 U6
676-850 U7
851-1025 U8
1026-1200 U9
1201-1400 U10
1401-1600 U11
1601-1800 U12
1801-2000 U13
2001-2200 U14
2201-2400 U15
2401+ U16

Generally, NZ schools are small by international standards and the large number of small rural schools brings down the median size for NZ primary schools to about 150 - having said that, in urban areas, there are plenty of primary schools in the 500s (U6) range.

The NZ school system is a blend of different types, sketched out below (in addition, there are also Maori and Correspondence schools). You can get more info on the Ministry of Education site - though it's not all that user-friendly. By the way, the most common job-seeking site here is seek

Primary

Full Primary schools take years 1 - 8; Contributing schools take years 1 - 6 and then the kids spend years 7 and 8 at intermediate school before going onto secondary. This is the case in many Auckland suburbs, for instance.

Secondary

Secondary schools take kids either direct from primary or from intermediate schools up to when they complete their education at year 13. There are all kinds of different labels for these schools, like 'college' and 'high school' etc.

Composite

Finally, the composite schools take kids from more than one age range - eg in some areas, kids will stay at the same school from the age of 5 until the age of 18. Not all that common though.

Martin McMorrow, TESOLANZ & Massey University, NZ

[pandg]

Thank you very much for taking the time to give me so much information - really appreciate it.

[Non Sequitur]

..and 'decile' is the socio-economic indicator for the school's catchment area.
Decile 1 is the lowest.
A low-decile rating attracts additional funding, staffing entitlements.
The main State sector teacher recruitment portal is:
teachnz.govt.nz