Three new charter schools are set to open in Term One of 2026, Associate Education Minister David Seymour has announced.
The schools are Aotearoa Infinite Academy, which is based online, Te Aratika High School in Hawke’s Bay, and Altum Academy in Wellington.
Seymour said the newly announced schools would “demonstrate the innovation enabled by the charter school model”.
Aotearoa Infinite Academy will teach students in small virtual classrooms. Seymour said it will help students whose location gets in the way of their education, or who don’t benefit from being in traditional classrooms.
Seymour said Te Aratika High School will “prepare disengaged Māori and Pacific students for employment”.
“Students will learn a vocational curriculum focused on the trades, and tailored to each individual.”
Altum Academy would be Wellington’s first charter school.
Seymour said it would look at addressing the equity gap in education by enabling disadvantaged students access to a school with a strong teaching workforce.
“The school will teach Classical Education. Students will be taught how to learn and think based on the Trivium method. The method identifies a three-stage natural development of a students’ education; grammar, logic, and rhetoric.”
Seymour said these new schools would take the total number of charter schools across the country to 14.
“This is just the beginning. I hope to see many more new charter schools opening, and state and state-integrated schools converting to become charter schools.”
The Charter School Agency confirmed in August it was currently considering four formal applications for state school conversions into charter schools by Term 1 next year.
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