A Tauranga principal is concerned children will miss out once a new funding scheme comes into place.

Oropi School principal Andrew King says the Ministry of Education's new school donations amendment bill puts higher decile schools at a disadvantage.

Under the new bill decile one to seven primary, intermediate and high schools will receive $150 per student on the roll from next year.

Decile eight to 10 schools are not eligible for the scheme - Oropi School is decile nine.

School deciles indicate the extent a school draws their students from low socio-economic communities.

Andrew says the scheme will affect each higher decile schools differently.

'Not all decile eight, nine and 10 schools are one and the same. A decile nine school in an affluent Auckland suburb with access to good private sector networks is going to maybe have more access to alternative funding sources than a school like mine.”

He says the school currently asks parents for between $100 to $300 dollars a year for extra stationery, school camps and technology, as well as a school donation but if they were part of the school donation scheme they wouldn't need to.

Around 90 per cent of families pay for the extras and 50 percent pay for the school donation, says Andrew.

'With the revised guidelines it clearly states that we can we can only ask for that cost as a donation moving forward.

'The terminology donation means that parents are going to feel less obliged to pay it. If we were one of the schools that was going to get this a hundred and fifty dollar donation per child that wouldn't matter.

'We're being hit twice because not only are we not getting the donations scheme funding, but we're also going to see a reduced number of parents choosing to pay for our additional programmes.”

The extra money parents pay also goes toward additional courses they offer like their garden to table programme.

'The garden to table program is about environmental sustainability, healthy living and social skills. It's learning about self-sustainability, it's amazing I couldn't rate it highly enough.”

Oropi School Principal Andrew King.

He says with the potential for reduced funding they will have to reduce the number of children that get involved the additional learning courses.

'It's going to really affect our philosophy, we have a philosophy where by all children in our school have access to everything that we offer.”

The principal is also concerned school camps will become a user pays activity.

'We might have to make it so it's only user pays, so those who pay can go on camp and for those who can't pay they stay at school and do something else. Now that's really unfair on the kids and it's often the kids who can't afford to go who really benefit from going on a camp.”

Normally the school has a hardship fund they can use to ensure everyone goes on camp but if funding changes this might not be available, says Andrew.

The intent behind the bill is good but Andrews thinks the funding should be extended to all schools.

'It was designed with good intention to stop schools asking for money from parents which is now possible in decile one to seven schools, but not in decile eight to 10 schools.”

He says not all Oropi School parents can afford the extra money they are asked for and the ministry has assumed that they can.

'They've assumed that our school's full of affluent families who can afford and pay for anything and everything.

'We've definitely got a significant percentage that can't really afford all these additional payment requests.”

Ministry of Education sector enablement and support acting deputy secretary Coralanne Child says the law has always been really clear that schools cannot charge fees for activities and resources that relate to the curriculum.

'Schools have been able to ask for donations towards these things, parents have been free to pay these in full, in part, or not at all.”

She says despite the new scheme requirements around school camps remain unchanged.

'Schools can still ask for donations towards camps even in the case of overnight camps, if they have opted into the scheme.

'Students may not be excluded from attending a camp or going on a trip that is part of curriculum delivery because of an inability or unwillingness to pay a donation towards the cost.

Coralanne says they have had guidance available to all schools on what they can ask parents to pay for.

'In the past we have received both complaints and requests for advice from parents and schools about what can be considered a fee.”

She says, the ministry use deciles to target funding to state and state-integrated schools, to help them overcome any barriers to learning that students from lower socio-economic communities might face.

'Although decile eight to ten schools are not currently eligible to opt in to the donations scheme, the [education] minister has said the government will monitor the donations replacement scheme once implemented, and consider any changes once it is up and running.”