Collective Matters #14

Kia ora,

Welcome back to Collective Matters.

The first ‘sports school’ in New Zealand? (Not)

On 20 October, the Associate Minister of Education, and charter schooling circus ringmaster, Hon David Seymour, announced his approval of what he called New Zealand’s ‘first sports school’, the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA), to commence in 2026, in Upper Hutt.

Not to split hairs, Mr Seymour but, in fact, a specialist sports school, Manakura (originally named Tū Toa), began in Palmerston North in 2005. Established through a Māori education charitable trust, it became a Y9-Y13 designated character state school in 2015. In 2024, it moved to a purpose-built campus funded by a $20 million government grant, on land donated by Massey University.

Mr Seymour claimed, nonetheless, that NZPAA was evidence that “the charter school model can be different if we let communities bring their ideas to the table”.

A more accurate media release might have read:

“If you would please just ignore the fact that Manakura and at least 93 Secondary School Sports Academies already exist in Aotearoa New Zealand, and have done so since 1997, then let me tell you that the first charter sports school, the Wellington Phoenix Academy Charter School New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA), will open in 2026. This is evidence that the charter school model can copy innovative ideas if we will only let profit-driven corporate interests bring their ideas (but probably not much or even any money) to the table.”

Our first Secondary School Sports Academy (SSSA) opened in 1997 at Aranui in Christchurch. Many others soon followed. By 2019 there were 93 SSSAs (or roughly one in every four secondary schools). In 2025, there could well be more. In 2019, researchers at Auckland University of Technology reported that these academies serve primarily as marketing tools.

“The research found half of decile 10 schools have sports academies, while the language has shifted from that of engagement to elitism, with 49 per cent of academy programmes referencing high performance (or equivalent terminology) in their name, mission statement or description, while 37 per cent reference high performance with sporting outcomes as their primary focus.”

So much for putting children’s best interests first, then.

Associate Minister Seymour’s Beehive release also waxed lyrical about the educational benefits for the Year 11-13 students who will attend: “The school will serve students with serious sporting aspirations, giving them the skills to ignite a professional career, while ensuring they get the academic education all students need…. Students will no longer have to sacrifice their education in pursuit of sporting dreams, or vice versa”. (The students already attending our nearly 100 SSSAs and high-performance sports programmes don’t have to make that sacrifice now, Associate Minister.)

Mr Seymour’s story is not quite the same story told by NZPPA board member Brett O’Riley when interviewed by Mike Hosking the next morning about what Hosking described as a ‘dream come true’ opportunity for sports lovers. O’Riley enthusiastically recounted the phone ‘running hot’ with enquiries from the Hutt Valley catchment and across the Wellington region (presumably a fair number of these are from students currently at other secondary schools that have invested heavily in developing SSSAs and high-performance sports programmes, and who face the very real prospect of having their top performers creamed/poached by NZPAA).

Hosking inconveniently asked about the mismatch between establishing a high performance, elite athlete school, and the rules of the scheme that say all charter schools are obliged to take anyone who wants to enrol (i.e. elite, not quite elite, passionate but ordinary, or just sports-curious).

“MH: How does it work? Do you pick winners? Are you cherry picking…?

BO: No, our funding that comes through the charter school programme really establishes us as a school that takes all comers, anyone who is interested in going to the [NZPAA] and they can participate in the school alongside people who are part of the Wellington Phoenix Academy….

MH: Surely, if you’ve got a facility, you want to plug in the best athletes where they can excel to the point where they will live to their fullest potential. Isn’t that what that’s all about?”

So at least two bloopers from Mr O’Riley. First, he revealed that the school will effectively have A and B streams. A for the top jocks, and B for the sports fans. And second, he let slip that a major purpose of the school is to provide academic pathway support for the Wellington Phoenix Football Academy (It was reported in the Post in April 2025 that the name of the school was originally intended to be Wellington Phoenix Academy Charter School, according to a short-lived posting on the club’s website). The General Manager of Wellington Phoenix, and a founder member of the NZPAA board, is David Dome. Dome is reportedly one of the ‘visionaries’ behind the charter school. He hopes that its establishment will allow Wellington Phoenix to double the number of children in its Academy to 36, all of whom are boarders.

Wellington Phoenix is owned by a private company Welnix GP Limited. Investment banker Rob Morrison is the sole director and shareholder. Wellington Phoenix Football Academy Limited is also a private business, owned by four shareholders. (Neither the Charities Services nor the Companies register contain an entry for NZPAA or similar so, consistent with Associate Minister’s obsessive insistence on secrecy and lack of transparency around charter schools 2.0, the public does not know whether it is a charitable, social enterprise or for-profit entity.)

Let’s wind back a bit. Is the idea a good one as its proponents and cheerleaders claim? The research evidence does not paint such a rosy picture of the effects of sports specialisation for elite young athletes or their families:

“The reasons for sport specialization are multifactorial and include the parents’ or athlete’s (or both) drive for athletic success, financial remuneration (including collegiate scholarships), and pursuit of dreams of professional or elite sport status. However, the emotional costs of specialization to athletes and their families can be quite large. Sport specialization often requires increased training hours and may predispose young athletes to social isolation, poor academic performance, increased anxiety, greater stress, inadequate sleep, decreased family time, and burnout. The opportunity cost of reduced exposure to other activities outside the sporting realm is another potential concern.”

Even if we choose to ignore the very real risks of this rapidly spreading early specialisation contagion across our youth sporting codes, and even if we persuade ourselves that it could be beneficial for even a fraction of this elite group of senior secondary school students (chances are most of whom, let’s be realistic, will not ‘ignite’ a professional career), does that really justify investing precious public funds when there are so many demands on those who are seriously disadvantaged by the very structural arrangements of the existing schooling system?

More than this, co-locating a world class sports facility, with (eventually) multiple major sporting codes and their academies, and a nascent charter school on the same campus in the Wellington region creates the most unlevel playing field imaginable for already established secondary schools with existing SSSAs and high-performance sports programmes.

In its own words:

“The New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport is a world class facility where professional teams, community groups, and corporate guests can train, recover, eat, sleep, and meet. Located in Upper Hutt the campus is a one stop shop for events, training camps or conferences, with 18 hectares of elite facilities, playing fields, accommodation, dining, conference centre, and commercial office space.”

Beat that, state schools.

The other issue of course, is cui bono? Or who benefits when corporate business interests are allowed to profit from state-funded schooling? Mr Seymour implied that the community (i.e. ordinary kiwis) came up with this idea. That’s a porkie in my view because he omitted to tell us that the new charter school appears, on the publicly available evidence at least, to be the result of a mutually beneficial commercial opportunity snapped up by Wellington Phoenix (i.e. Welnix GP Limited), the Wellington Phoenix Football Academy Limited, and the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport (NZCIS), another private limited company. NZCIS has been jointly owned since 2016 by two well-known, large scale commercial property and residential subdivision developers based in Upper Hutt, Malcolm Gillies and Kevin Melville.

The NZCIS forms part but only part of what Gillies and Melville purchased, namely the entire former publicly owned Central Institute of Technology campus. The NZCIS sports and commercial facilities are certainly jaw-droppingly impressive in a ‘New Zealand’s Best Homes with Phil Spencer’ kind of way, including, it seems, top quality conference standard accommodation for up to 450. The owners have reportedly invested $90-100 million into development of NZCIS. But that, once again, is only part of the story for in 2020 the project received a $30 million ‘shovel ready project’ grant from the Labour government’s Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund to help develop the facility. Then Finance Minister Grant Roberston said, “The project will provide services not only to elite sports, but it is also intended to provide services for academies and grassroots.”

Now if that really were the case, presumably having received tens of millions of dollars from the taxpayer, NZCIS would also have wanted to establish an open-door policy, free or heavily discounted, to SSSAs and high-performance sports programme schools in the Hutt Valley catchment and wider Wellington region. (The NZCIS website says it’s an easy thirty-minute commute from Wellington CBD.)

It’s difficult to see how either NZCIS or Wellington Phoenix or its Academy could fail to extract profit from their ten-year renewable Charter School Agency contract (financial, reputational and in the case of Wellington Phoenix [and those codes that join the rush], a far bigger production line of future elite players). As of now, we have no reason whatsoever to believe that any of the three private businesses will be putting their own money into the pot. And even if the school tuition side is covered for those lucky and privileged enough to enrol, it looks as if youth athletes and their families who aren’t associated with one of the NZCIS tenanted sports codes may have to cover some or all the travel, accommodation and non-tuition costs.

Let’s just imagine for a moment that the owners of three entities are only very well off, or modest multi-millionaires, rather than billionaires. Even so, is it too much to ask them to act like genuine philanthropists and at the very least match the funding they will receive from the taxpayer for establishing and running their private school?

Event - The “Other” Roadshow

Join Aotearoa Educators Collective and friends for our “other” curriculum roadshow.

It’s been a massive year for educators around Aotearoa. These events provide a change to come together and discuss the change we really need in our education system. Each event will be an uplifting evening of social networking, a screening of Ted Dintersmith’s new documentary ‘Multiple Choice’ followed by a panel discussion with leading educators and educational thinkers from across Aotearoa. Book your ticket today!

A big thank you to our official partners - PPTA, NZEI, Te Akatea, EdRising and EONZ!

Event - UpliftEd Conference 2025 - SOLD OUT

30-31 October 2025 - Massey University, Wellington.

The UpliftEd Conference is an energising and thought-provoking event designed for educators who are passionate about their profession and the future of education in Aotearoa. Hosted by the Aotearoa Educators’ Collective, this conference brings together leading thinkers, researchers, and practitioners to explore what it truly means to uplift and empower teachers.

Expect inspiring keynotes, engaging panel discussions, and opportunities to connect with fellow educators who share your vision for the future of teaching and learning.

We have had a change in our line up. Prof Guy Claxton is unable to make it. We are lucky to have Pasi Sahlberg join us.

We have Pasi Sahlberg alongside Professor Peter O’Connor, Professor Russell Bishop, Dr Simon McCallum, Dr Hana O’Regan, Dr. Julia Atkin, Janelle Riki-Waaka , Dr. Michael Johnston

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In the Media

Substack Summary

19 October - Sunday Read: Children have rights too, you know - Full article

17 October - AEC presents The ‘Other’ Curriculum Roadshow! - Full article

15 October - The charter school clown car tootles on in ever reducing circles - Full article

13 October - When Phonics Isn’t Reading: Why Today’s ‘Literacy Breakthrough’ Doesn’t Add Up - Full article

5 October - Sunday Read: How many swings does the wrecking ball get before we all say enough is enough? - Full article

29 September - An Open Letter to the Minister of Education - Full article

28 September - Sunday Read: Recapturing the Senior English Curriculum - Full article

26 September - A Curriculum Designed by New Zealanders for New Zealanders - Full article

23 September - Has National MP Dan Bidois been radicalised? - Full article

21 September - Sunday Read: Wearing down Vocational Education - Full article

16 September - Call for Student Activist Art - Full article

15 September - National Testing and Valuing Teachers - Full article

15 September - Save NCEA petition hits 5k help us get to 10k! - Full article

12 September - The Senior Subjects List is Out - Full article