Our Application

On August 22nd, 2025, our application to establish Atlas High School was rejected by the Charter School Authorisation Board.

You can view the outcome letter here.

Immediately following receiving the news from the Agency, Atlas responded with a letter asking for reconsideration and clarification. 

You can view our response letter here.

On the 4th of September at 6:45pm, we received a response from the Charter School Agency. The response advised that “at this stage, the Board’s decisions are final'“. It was also confirmed that feedback regarding our application will be published once the “full process has been concluded”.

You can view the response from the Charter School Authorisation Board here.

In the interest of transparency, we are now making our full application public. We invite you to review the strengths of our application below.

The Board stated that it "sought sponsors who demonstrated they could address an educational and community need, contribute to system diversity and grow sustainably".

We are really proud of our application and believe it to be of high quality, our full application can be viewed using the button below.

Criteria for Approval

The definitive legal source for the criteria is the Education and Training Amendment Act 2024, which inserts Section 212I into the main Education and Training Act 2020.

According to this section, when deciding whether to approve a sponsor, the Authorisation Board must take into account the following seven matters:

  1. The focus of the proposed charter school.

  2. The capability of the proposed sponsor.

  3. The standard of tuition to be provided.

  4. The financial implications for the Crown.

  5. If it meets educational purpose of the Education and Training Act.

  6. The level of support from the community.

  7. Any other relevant matters (ie the additional matters for distance education related to student engagement and attendance as well as pastoral care)

In lieu of feedback from the Charter School Agency as to which of these we did not meet, we have prepared the below summary with actual quotes and content from our application that support each criterium.

When quotes occur, they are followed by the section they are quoted from in our application.

1) The focus of the proposed charter school.

Atlas was designed to provide something genuinely special for the Whakatipu.

“Our vision is for Atlas High School graduates to be future-focused, academically rigorous, inspired citizens who are forces of change.” (Executive Summary)

The school is built on our MAPS philosophy: Meaningful, Authentic, Personalised, and Student-directed learning. Every student engages in rigorous Essentials (literacy, numeracy, science) while also tackling Explorations — interdisciplinary, real-world projects with community experts.

“Atlas Explorations are Project-based… students work on complex problems… integrating multiple subjects… fostering deeper learning and a more holistic understanding.” (Purpose and Contribution)

But the focus wasn’t only on how students learn, it was on why Queenstown needed Atlas. The Whakatipu Basin faces an urgent secondary schooling choice crisis.

“Currently, families without the means for private education have limited or no choice regarding secondary schooling. Atlas will provide a distinct, innovative, and high-quality fees-free option, increasing choice and catering to diverse learning needs.” (Purpose and Contribution)

“Capacity constraints: The existing public high school is facing significant capacity pressure, with projections indicating it will reach its limit very soon. Atlas offers a proactive solution to help accommodate our growing student population.” (Purpose and Contribution)

Without Atlas, Queenstown risks reverting to a one-school town, leaving many families trapped. With Atlas, families gain a real choice - not just in where their children go to school, but in how they are prepared for the future.

“The simple act of being able to make a choice in where you go to school can save a child and family from feeling trapped, and improve outcomes in both schools.” (Purpose and Contribution)

2) Capability of the Proposed Sponsor

Atlas had the backing of the 45 South Community Foundation (formerly Wakatipu Community Foundation (WCF)), a proven, permanent platform for local philanthropy, with a mandate to steward assets for community benefit rather than private gain.

“At the Wakatipu Community Foundation (WCF), our mission is to grow local philanthropy to support initiatives that strengthen our region—today and for generations to come… Sponsoring Atlas High School is a natural extension of this mission.” (Purpose & Contribution)

Unlike private education trusts or for-profit ventures, 45 South’s structure meant Atlas would always remain community-owned and fees-free for domestic students, reinvesting any surplus into the school itself or other charitable education initiatives in the region.

The partnership was also designed as a national lighthouse model. Through ownership of Atlas within our local community foundation, the project provided a replicable framework for other community foundations across Aotearoa to sponsor charter schools in their own regions.

“We are helping to secure a long-term asset for the region… Atlas offers a new approach to learning… while embedding them sustainably in a structure that reflects local values and voice. This partnership is a powerful example of what community foundations do best… It’s also a model that could inspire future collaborations across Aotearoa.” (Purpose & Contribution)

This was a unique opportunity for the charter school movement in New Zealand: a shift away from privately owned or profit-driven operators, and towards a network of locally governed, not-for-profit schools that were genuinely accountable to their communities.

Leadership was also incredibly strong with our proposed Head of School Daniel Cooper, a Kiwi educator with 18 years’ international experience in progressive schools, was ready to lead Atlas with global perspective and local grounding. Governance included robust financial oversight, self-audits, and independent audits under the Performance Management Framework, ensuring accountability at every level

3) Standard of Tuition

Atlas offered an educational model unlike anything else in New Zealand, a refined evolution of the internationally acclaimed Liger Learning model, recognised globally as one of the Top 100 Most Innovative Education Models (HundrED).

The Atlas curriculum combined the best of traditional rigour with authentic, project-based, community-connected learning:

“Constructivist learning theory emphasises learners constructing their own understanding through experience, inquiry, and reflection… making it especially valuable for the real-world, project-based and experiential learning.” (Purpose and Contribution)

The original Liger model, proven in Cambodia, built a reputation for producing graduates who went on to top universities and impactful careers through deep, project-based learning. Atlas adapted and evolved that framework specifically for the New Zealand context:

Our Learning Handbook notes:

“The Liger Learning Model has been recognised globally… Atlas builds on that foundation by aligning it with the New Zealand Curriculum and NCEA, ensuring that every student has a pathway to national qualifications while maintaining the innovation and authenticity that made Liger unique.” (Atlas Learning Handbook, p.6–7)

We believe that Atlas’s model would have unleashed NCEA’s potential - unlike conventional approaches that often chase credits, Atlas focused on quality over quantity:

“We are interested in learners earning quality credits rather than the quantity… Senior students will have opportunities to achieve NCEA standards… through authentic work completed within their Exploration projects.” (Purpose and Contribution)

Students would also maintain a Learner Portfolio - a dynamic record of projects, skills, and evidence of impact, giving universities and employers a richer picture of each graduate.

External experts recognised Atlas as anatural next step in education innovation:

“Atlas has purposefully designed a curriculum and pedagogical approach that places the learner firmly at the centre… The abilities to engage deeply in learning, to develop self-regulation, to grow their autonomy, to learn from failure and to work in diverse teams are not nice-to-haves but are must-haves. This is what Atlas is setting out to achieve.” — Maurie Abraham, Founding Principal of Hobsonville Point High School (Purpose and Contribution)

4) Financial Implications for the Crown

Atlas presented a low-risk, philanthropically underwritten model that actively protected taxpayers.

From the outset, our sponsor secured significant philanthropic backing:

“WCF has also secured the patronage of local philanthropists Trevor and Agnieszka Gile, who have pledged… a sizable interest-free loan to Atlas to get off the ground and reach financial sustainability.” (Business Planning)

The Gile family made this commitment explicit:

“To ensure Atlas has the strongest possible start, we are personally guaranteeing an interest-free loan of NZD $1.1m… to navigate initial capital expenditure and fitout…” — Trevor Gile (Business Planning)

And in our formal response to the rejection, the Founders went further still, offering an unprecedented guarantee to New Zealand taxpayers:

“The Founders, knighted for their contributions to education, are willing to contractually guarantee Atlas’s success, and reimburse all public funds disbursed if reasonable performance, attendance, or enrolment metrics are not met prior to sustainability.”

This meant the financial implications for the Crown were not just low-risk — they were zero-risk.

Wider Economic Risks of Not Supporting Atlas

At the onset of the application process, we commissioned a report from Economist Benje Patterson. The report suggested in many was that it would actually cost the taxpayer more not to invest in Atlas.

Queenstown’s rapid growth makes inaction costly:

“The rapid rate of population growth in Queenstown means that any delays to building additional high school infrastructure can very quickly manifest in acute schooling shortages in a way not experienced in slower growing places.

Wakatipu High School has recently made an urgent request for an extension to 2,000 students to deal with imminent capacity constraints. But even with this expansion, Queenstown could run out of high school capacity in less than five years.

Atlas High School can bring further additional capacity quickly to the Queenstown high school market, without adding more short-term pressure to the Government’s balance sheet. Under a charter school model, Atlas High School would be sourcing its own capital to develop schooling infrastructure.

It would cost over $11 million for the Ministry of Education to build facilities for 200 domestic students (excluding land and fitout costs).”

School choice underpins economic diversification:

“Transformative economic diversification relies on attracting and retaining a skilled workforce. The availability of high-quality schools, including a choice of learning models, will be a key consideration for these people when choosing to live in Queenstown.”

5) Alignment with the Education and Training Act

When the Government reintroduced charter schools, the agency and the Minister responsible made their purpose clear:

“Charter schools | kura hourua give a new schooling choice to families and more flexibility for educators to lift children’s achievement.” (Charter School Website)

“Charter schools are publicly funded and provide students and families with more schooling choice… Educators at charter schools will be given autonomy to respond to student needs in innovative ways while being held to account for outcomes much more stringently than state schools. This will raise educational achievement, especially for students disengaged from school.” - David Seymour

Flexibility

Atlas hoped to be an educational laboratory designed to lift the system as a whole. By embedding project-based learning, authentic assessments, and community-driven Explorations, Atlas would have serve as a testbed for practices other schools could learn from.

“Atlas High School aspires to become a genuine lighthouse for innovative education in New Zealand. By maximising the positive impact our learning model has on our students' success, we hope to grow and scale our influence across the country.” (Purpose and Contribution)

Flexibility at Atlas meant innovation, it meant new ways of structuring governance, funding, and accountability — a school owned by the community foundation, not private operators. That structure itself was innovative, reshaping how public education could be delivered sustainably.

Supporting School Choice

The other pillar of charter schools is choice. Yet in Queenstown, choice does not exist. Families currently face a monopoly, a single, rapidly growing secondary school with no alternative unless they can afford to leave town or pay for private education.

“Currently, families without the means for private education have limited or no choice regarding secondary schooling.” (Executive Summary)

Atlas would have broken that monopoly by providing a fees-free, not-for-profit alternative. As the economic analysis confirmed, choice isn’t a luxury, it underpins both equity and local prosperity:

“The availability of high-quality schools, including a choice of learning models, will be a key consideration for people when choosing to live in Queenstown.” (Economic Analysis)

Without Atlas, Queenstown families remain trapped in a one-school town, at odds with the very intent of the Act’s amendment.

6) The Level of Support from the Community

Charter schools are intended to reflect the needs and aspirations of their communities. Atlas High School demonstrated that support at every level: from families and iwi, to philanthropy, business, and civic leaders.

Parents in Queenstown voiced clear demand for an alternative - consistent feedback we got resembled the below:

“Queenstown is growing and changing, we need educational options to meet increasingly diverse needs of families” (Purpose and Contribution)

Expressions of interest immediately exceeded the school’s opening roll target (our expressions of interest now sit at >200), showing families were ready to enrol from day one.

Additionally, Atlas placed Te Tiriti partnership at its heart:

“The importance of your Community Powered Learning approach in working towards authentically involving whanau Maori creates a safe place of learning for Tamariki and Rangatahi Maori. Working with Mana Tahuna Charitable Trust will ensure an integration of local tikanga, matauranga Māori and the matauranga of the Whakatipu into the learning experiences. A student-centred school like which Atlas will provide in Tahuna Queenstown will be innovative and will work towards allowing whanau and Atlas to come together to ensure that Maori students thrive and succeed as Maori.” - Local Kaumatua Darren Rewi (Purpose and Contribution)

Atlas was a school the community asked for, shaped by partnerships, underwritten by philanthropy, and supported by local business. The proposal offered exactly what the charter school framework envisioned: education rooted in, and owned by, its community.

7) Any Other Relevant Matters

The Education and Training Act identifies student engagement, attendance, and pastoral care as additional matters of relevance. Atlas addressed each of these directly and comprehensively.

Engagement

Atlas placed student agency and relevance at the centre of learning.

Explorations were designed to be interdisciplinary, project-based learning experiences that allow students to develop essential skills while engaging with authentic, real-world challenges.

This model meant that learning was never abstract or disconnected; it was purposeful, engaging, and built to sustain curiosity and motivation across all year levels.

NCEA Pathways

The application also demonstrated that this innovative pedagogy was fully compatible with national qualifications:

“Senior students will have opportunities to achieve NCEA standards through authentic work completed within their Exploration projects.” (Purpose and Contribution)

This approach made NCEA more relevant, embedding assessment within meaningful projects rather than limiting it to traditional exam-based methods.

Attendance and Inclusion

Atlas designed its programme to reduce disengagement and truancy, particularly for students whose needs are not met by a one-size-fits-all model:

“Learning at Atlas is designed to embrace learning differences by tailoring instruction, hyper-personalising learning goals and offering flexible pathways.” (Purpose and Contribution)

This ensured that every student could see a place for themselves in the school, with pathways flexible enough to keep them connected to education.

Pastoral Care

Finally, Atlas wove wellbeing into the fabric of school life, rather than treating it as an add-on:

“Integrated within our Future You pastoral programme, dedicated advisory time includes academic coaching, goal setting, and personalised pathway planning, ensuring students have clear strategies for achieving their academic and NCEA goals. To support success in Essentials and Explorations Atlas will include pastoral, skills and innovation coaches on staff to guide students to develop personally, and technologically.” (Readiness to meet performance outcomes)

This holistic approach recognised that thriving students need to feel safe, valued, and connected.

Thank you for reading. If you would like to read our full application, you can do so below.