Domestic Pupils Attendance Dues

For domestic pupils, the answer to this question may surprise you in a very pleasant way. We are committed to high-quality Christian education while keeping financial costs to our parents and caregivers as low as possible.

Apart from the usual uniform and book costs associated with any school, there are a number of costs that parents must be aware of.

Attendance dues. These are the compulsory charges that all parents must pay each year that they have children at the school. Attendance Dues are paid directly to the Board of Proprietors. As the ‘owners’ of the school, this group is responsible for all land and building developments. Land and buildings are the only things that these dues can be spent on.

The Proprietors of our school believe that Christian education should be available to all who desire this option for their children. The attendance dues structure compares very well with other Christian Schools.

Please note fees can be subject to change and we will communicate this as soon as the information becomes available.

You can view updated attendance dues information at the Christian Schools Trust website  https://www.cst.org.nz/aidanfield-christian-school/

Charging of Attendance Dues 2024 $1,500

Attendance dues are used by the Proprietor of the school (The Christian Schools’ Trust) to provide the land and buildings that make up the campus of Aidanfield Christian School. Insurance premiums have increased considerably in 2022-2023 along with increasing interest rates for debt servicing. Alongside these increases, building costs for current and planned projects at the school continue to climb. This means that the attendance dues rate must be increased in 2024 for the Proprietor to continue to meet its obligations.

Attendance dues have been set at $1,500 per student for the year. This includes an increase of $60 (4%) above the 2023 rate. The proprietor is mindful that attendance dues represent a significant commitment for families and endeavours to strike a balance between keeping them affordable for families on the one hand and being able to provide what the school requires on the other.

Voluntary & Activity Donations

Attendance Dues are a compulsory cost and go directly to the Board of Proprietors, not the School Board. By law, we cannot use any of this for the running of the school. It can only be used for buildings and special character resourcing.

Aidanfield Christian School has two types of donations and these are vital to our ongoing functions.

General Donations for the Running of the School

The first donation type is to help cover the cost of running the school and is a General Donation. It contributes towards the cost of learning support (we spend two and a half times the amount that the Government gives us to support children who need extra help), extension programmes (we get nothing specific from the Government to run these), provision of laptops and iPads for all pupils (we don’t ask parents to provide technology like others do – no BYOD! We spend two and a half times more on technology provision for you than we get from the Government), extra sport and arts coordination, youth workers and various other aspects that flavour our school. We need the general donation to continue to provide what we currently do. The government does not provide enough to do half of what is listed above!

For the last decade, we have suggested a voluntary donation per child of $200 and we have never pressured nor expected this payment. We have always been blessed to receive from those who can donate whatever they can give, be it $5 or $4000, and we have always supported those who are not able to. This donation request remains and makes the day-to-day running of the school possible. You can claim a tax rebate on this donation at the end of the tax year. Compared to other schools of similar size and decile our donations are very low. We receive about $20,000 a year from these. If everyone paid the suggested amount, we would receive $60,000 per year.

Donations to Activities

The second donation is a result of the current government becoming more focused on ‘free education’. We are now not able to ‘charge’ for many things that we have in the past. Things like school camps, swimming, one-off trips and events etc. We can ask for a donation to help us do these things but we can’t charge specifically for them.

Practically, all activities that make the learning deep, wide and engaging cost money to run – everyone knows this. The school is only able to offer certain activities to make the curriculum come alive with the financial help and support from parents in our school community. The money we receive from the Government only covers the basic curriculum. Donations from our parent community make these activities possible. No child will be excluded from an activity if their parent does not contribute via a donation. However, if enough families do not help by donating towards activities we will have to stop these activities as the cost will make it impossible to run. This is the blunt reality. You can claim a tax rebate on this donation at the end of the tax year.

What does it mean to have ‘free education’ in New Zealand?

Aidanfield Christian School is a state-integrated school. We are not a private school and because of our higher decile rating, we get less money per pupil from the government than most schools. We need parents to help cover the costs of our ‘free education’. The following helps to make sense of what we can and can’t do.

What we can and can’t charge for

Schools cannot charge parents for curriculum costs, but there are occasions when the classroom materials go home and these can be invoiced. The school can charge for things that pupils actually bring home (e.g. pupil diaries, school magazines, scones, workbooks etc). Non-curriculum costs can be fully recovered from parents. Transport to and from events, sports costs and similar such things can be charged to parents. At ACS we are constantly working to keep these costs as low as possible for you while achieving excellent learning opportunities for your child.

Where do we get money from?

We receive our main funding from the Ministry of Education to run the school. This does not, however, enable us to provide the full and rich learning environment that the Board and our parents wish for. Therefore, we rely heavily on parents’ voluntary donations to assist us achieve the above.