INTRODUCTION: After the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, the provision of school social work was extended into a larger number of schools in the greater Christchurch region to support discussions of their practice priorities and responses in post-earthquake schools. FINDINGS: Two main interpretations of need are reflected in the school social workers’ accounts of their work with children and families. Firstly, hardship-focused need, which represented children as adversely influenced by their home circumstances; the interventions were primarily with parents. These families were mainly from schools in low socioeconomic areas. Secondly, anxiety-based need, a newer practice response, which emphasised children who were considered particularly susceptible to the impacts of the disaster event. This article considers how these practitioners conceptualised and responded to the needs of the children and their families in this context. METHOD: A qualitative study examining recovery policy and school social work practice following the earthquakes including 12 semi-structured interviews with school social workers. This article provides a Foucauldian analysis of the social worker participants’ perspectives on emotional and psychological issues for children, particularly those from middle-class families; the main interventions were direct therapeutic work with children themselves. Embedded within these practice accounts are moments in which the social workers contested the predominant, individualising conceptualisations of need to enable more open-ended, negotiable, interconnected relationships in post-earthquake schools. IMPLICATIONS: In the aftermath of disasters, school social workers can reflect on their preferred practice responses and institutional influences in schools to offer children and families opportunities to reject the prevalent norms of risk and vulnerability.
A school leader says the Ministry of Education of wasted millions of taxpayer dollars over years of earthquake repairs, and was obstructive and misleading. The building budget at Christchurch Girls High School has blown out by 50 percent to $40 million and it's not finished, even after five years of work. Mike Lay, who was chair of the board of trustees for most of those years, until 2018, says the ministry botched the job then targeted him when he tried to hold it accountable. He told Phil Pennington about the school's struggle to get the school re-built properly.
The Prime Minister Chris Hipkins today announced an additional three hundred and one million dollar boost for the rebuild of earthquake damaged Christchurch schools, and said the programme in Christchurch may be a template for repairing flood damaged schools in the North Island. Some schools are still waiting to be repaired more than a decade after the devastating quakes. On his first visit to Christchurch since becoming Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins visited one of the schools still in the midst of its rebuild process, and to celebrate the progress being made. Our reporter Rachel Graham and videographer Nate McKinnon went along.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "George Ridgen (8) and his second cousin Amelia Ridgen (6), pupils at Greendale School, with a book 'The Octopus Tree', copies of which were donated by Boulcott School in Wellington after the earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "George Ridgen (8) and his second cousin Amelia Ridgen (6), pupils at Greendale School, with a book 'The Octopus Tree', copies of which were donated by Boulcott School in Wellington after the earthquake".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Portaloos at the Heathcote Valley School".
An incomplete map showing the location of schools relative to new subdivisions.
High school students listening to a performer at the Re-Entry concert.
An aerial photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Christchurch Boys High School".
Remains of the Cranmer Centre, formerly Christchurch Girls High School (1878 - 1986).
An aerial photograph of Christchurch Boys High School on Te Kura Street.
High school students listening to a performer at the Re-Entry concert.
A page banner promoting an article titled, "The state of our schools".
High School students setting up the Re-Entry concert on Gloucester Street.
A photograph of emergency management personnel standing outside a school in Christchurch.
A cordoned off area in Christ's College where bricks from the heritage buildings have been removed and stacked. Scaffolding can be seen on the building in the distance and a prefab building to the right which was being used as classrooms while the buildings are still unsafe to enter.
An entry from Gallivanta's blog for 12 December 2012 entitled, "Old School, New Times".
A photograph of an AWA Trails poster on the gates of Wainoni School. The poster on the right identifies this spot as Location 1 on the Wainoni Trail. The photograph was taken at the launch of the Wainoni AWA trail at Wainoni School. All Right? posted the photograph on their Facebook page on 2 September 2015 at 3:56pm.
The plight of Earthquake victims in Christchurch has struck a chord with the pupils at an Auckland school. More than 300 pupils at Pasadena Intermediate, in the suburb of Point Chevalier, have donned the Canterbury colours, raising money to help a school down South recover from the disaster.
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Rangi Ruru Presbyterian Girls School, Hewitts Road".
Register Record for Cathedral Grammar School Main Block, 2 Chester Street West, Christchurch
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Felled trees at the Heathcote Valley School".
Photograph captioned by BeckerFraserPhotos, "Rangi Ruru Presbyterian Girls School, Hewitts Road".
Staff at the Engineering School photographed outside the soon to be demolished Mushroom.
Denise Torrey is the principal of Summerfield School in the south of Christchurch.
A skip and Port-a-loos outside the Cathedral Grammar Girls' Preparatory School.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Cathedral Grammar School Main Block.
A photograph of high school students working at the Fitzgerald Avenue Community Garden.
A photograph of the sign for the Old School Reserve in Mt Pleasant.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to the Cathedral Grammar School Main Block.