The Correspondence School

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The Correspondence School Te Kura-a-Tuhi
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Motto	-
Type	State co-ed correspondence school
Year established	1922
Address	11 Portland Crescent, Thorndon, Wellington
Principal	Mike Hollings (Chief Executive Officer)
School roll	7996 (2004)
Socio-economic decile (10 is high)	not given by ERO
Ministry of Education Institution no.	498
Website	www.correspondence.school.nz

The Correspondence School (Te Kura-a-Tuhi) is New Zealand's largest school, with students from early childhood to secondary level. In addition to its ordinary full-time students, it provides programmes to students at other state-owned schools where a subject is unavailable, and to adults. In 2003 there were 8,614 full-time equivalent students (of all categories, including adult and Department of Corrections enrolments), with a total of 18,999 students.

The school began in 1922 with 100 primary level students, expanding into secondary education in 1928 with 50 students and into early childhood education in 1976. When the School was first established in the 1920s, parliamentarians referred to the founding vision as " a school for the benefit of the most isolated children, for example of lighthouse keepers and remote shepherds living upon small islands or in mountainous districts". The same parliamentary debate on TCS also described it as "a school of last resort, ensuring that no matter where he (sic) lived every child should have as full an education as he was capable of achieving".

It is headquartered in Portland Crescent in Thorndon, Wellington.

The school began a significant review of its services under the leadership of Debbie Francis (CEO January 2004 - July 2006) during which time the school was repositioned and restructured. A $6 million annual deficit was corrected primarily through reducing the number of salaried staff - amongst other strategies. Further to this, the school developed a Differentiated Services Model for its full time students.

Mike Hollings commenced in the position of CEO from August 2006 after completing a contract as the CEO of New Zealand Education Review Office (ERO).