The Otago Peninsula community feels it has been put in a "ridiculous" and "impossible situation" after being left out of the enrolment zone of its closest all-girls school.

The Ministry of Education has proposed introducing an enrolment scheme to Dunedin’s Queen’s High School next year due to fears of overcrowding.

It left the Otago Peninsula out of the proposed home zone for the school, much to the dismay of many in the community.

Portobello School board presiding member Emily Larkins was very surprised to find out the peninsula had been left out of the Queen’s home zone as it was so close.

She said families living on the peninsula generally sent their children to one of the three closest schools: King’s, Queen’s or Bayfield High Schools.

With the proposed Queen’s home zone in place, families would only have a guaranteed spot for their girls at Bayfield.

Otago Girls’ High school also had an enrolment scheme. The peninsula community was outside that zone as well.

Ms Larkins said her daughter Ivy would have been in the third generation of women in her family to attend Queen’s.

She had been looking forward to attending Queen’s for years but was now having to consider other options.

"It’s a massive change for a 12-year-old girl to be having to consider.

"My daughter panicked a little."

Ms Larkins felt her daughter was not suited for a co-educational school like Bayfield and would have benefited hugely from the single-sex environment at Queen’s.

There was a "natural expectation" her daughter would be able to attend the school with no issues and she was shocked to find out she might miss out.

"It doesn’t make sense at all."

She had made a submission to the ministry on behalf of the Portobello School board and as a parent.

The three peninsula schools, Macandrew Bay School, Broad Bay School and Portobello School, would not contribute huge numbers of students to the Queen’s roll so it made sense to include them in its home zone, Ms Larkins said.

The South Dunedin area was really important "access-wise" to peninsula families for getting their older children to school.

Ōtākou Marae whanau member Nadia Wesley-Smith said Queen’s had a relationship that spanned decades with the marae and the Ōtākou Runaka.

She could remember being a child and seeing students from Queen’s come to the marae and looking forward to one day attending the school herself.

"Queen’s High was a very natural progression because of that existing relationship.

"At the time, when I was a child, it was just the school that all the girls went to. There was no question of any other school."

Ms Wesley-Smith had whanau who were a part of He Waka Kōtuia, the kapa haka group that King’s and Queen’s students belonged to and her daughter had hoped to join.

She said her daughter thought it was really unfair that she would not be able to be a part of the group when her older brother, who went to King’s, could be.

"It hurts a little that our kids who live close to the marae and live close to the Māori reserve are potentially going to be excluded," Ms Wesley-Smith said.

Otago Peninsula Community Board chairman Paul Pope said the home zone had made it "out of reach" for peninsula families to send their girls to a single-sex school.

He wanted to encourage future, present and past parents to write to the ministry to have the proposed enrolment scheme overturned because it was a "silly, kind of ridiculous situation" they were put in.

"The community here have been put into an impossible position, and we really need to get this overturned."

Tahuna Normal Intermediate School deputy principal Roddy Scoles said out of the 140 year 8 girls it had last year, 70 went to Queen’s.

He said the proposal was creating unnecessary stress for parents who were worried about their daughters’ place at the high school.

He encouraged parents at Tahuna to also submit to the ministry to overturn the enrolment scheme.

Queen’s principal Barbara Agnew encouraged parents in the school’s community to provide feedback on the proposal directly to the ministry.

Ministry south leader Andrea Williams said no final decision had been made regarding the peninsula and encouraged every one with a view on the enrolment scheme to visit its website and complete a survey before consultation closed.

The consultation was open until June 5.

mark.john@odt.co.nz