Fencing at schools

Information and advice for installing and designing fences at schools.

Level of compliance	Main audience	Other
Inform	Boards Proprietors Building Contractors Product Providers	Principals and Tumuaki Project Managers Property Managers

Level of compliance

Main audience

Other

Inform

Boards
Proprietors
Building Contractors
Product Providers

Principals and Tumuaki
Project Managers
Property Managers

The Ministry does not have a specific requirement for schools to be fenced. The installation of fences at schools should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Fences should be fit for purpose, future proof, and meet all functional and technical requirements. Boundary fencing projects, including learning support property modifications, must meet our design standards.

Installing fences

Boards can decide whether or not to install fencing at their school.

However, this needs to be considered in the context of all infrastructure needs at your school. This is a case-by-case decision as there are many factors to consider and it’s important to make a decision based on the school’s priorities identified through the 10 Year Property Plan.

Boards can install fences for safety, security or privacy reasons or to manage external risks at their schools. Fencing may also support student safety, particularly younger ākonga and those with learning support needs.

However, fences may also be seen as a barrier to schools being open, welcoming places and may separate them from the community although there are design strategies that can be used to help soften this barrier.

General fencing work (construction, maintenance and replacement), excluding fences for learning support reasons, is the responsibility of each school board and may be funded through your 5-Year Agreement funding. Fencing work to address safety concerns may be considered a higher priority.

5 Year Agreement (5YA) funding – Education in New Zealand

Legal rights and obligations when building or replacing a boundary fence

When planning to build or replace a boundary fence, you need to be aware of the rights and responsibilities of your school and your neighbours.

Before starting work, you will need to issue a notice under the Fencing Act 1978 to your neighbour. This is to formally advise them of your intentions and their responsibilities. As a first step, contact your school property advisor who can advise on this process.

Your notice, or written proposal, must:

state that the notice is served under the Fencing Act 1978
give the names and addresses of both you and your neighbour
describe the fence, where it will go and how it will be built
outline who will build the fence
give an estimate of costs and how you will buy the materials
state the start date of the work
specify how you would like to share the cost of the fence, and
specify the consequences of failure to comply with the notice (being that the neighbour is deemed to have agreed to your proposal and will have to share the cost).

You can deliver the notice by registered letter or in person. This is called “serving notice”. Your neighbour then has 21 days to object to any aspect of the proposal.

For more information, and an example of the form of fencing notice (at Schedule 1), see the Fencing Act 1978.

Fencing Act 1978 – NZ Legislation(external link)

Receiving a notice from your neighbour

If a notice is issued by a neighbour to your school under the Fencing Act 1978, the first step will be for you to raise this with your property advisor.

Your property advisor will then determine if the notice is raising an operational issue (for example, about the colour or height of the fence) or if the notice raises a more substantial issue that needs to be reviewed by our Ownership & Occupancy team.

If the issue is minor and operational, this can be resolved by the school with support from the property advisor. The Ownership & Occupancy team can provide support for notices about fencing covenants and agreements as these may require registration against Crown land and therefore require the involvement of Land Information NZ.

Choosing a fence design

Fencing design must consider safety, community accessibility and inclusion. Where practical, explore landscape design as a first approach to achieving safety outcomes.

Start by considering the purpose of the fence and use this to inform the decision making when choosing the fence design. If practical, choose a fence design that meets multiple needs. For example, a fence may be for privacy, safety, to contain sports gear, or for all of the above.

When planning the fence design, consider whether:

fences and gates are best placed to support our safe and welcoming school objectives
the materials and style of fence is durable, fit for purpose and of a commercial quality
you can blend the fence into the surrounding landscape to reduce the visual impact.

Meeting design standards

New fences must meet our design standards.

Refer to our Designing schools and fencing at schools design and specification guidance for details on fencing standards and guidance on fence design.

Designing schools in Aotearoa New Zealand – Education in New Zealand

Fencing Design Standards and Guidance V1.0 May2023 [PDF, 2.5 MB]

Do not use hazardous fencing

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, you must not have fencing that may harm people, even when trespassing.

A hazardous fence has:

cut-steel ‘arrow-heads’, sometimes called ‘spear-heads’
single- and triple-pointed palisades, or a rod or tube cut on an angle to form a point – features normally associated with cheaper fences
other deterrent features that could potentially harm people.

Hazardous fences do not stop people from trying to climb over them and may cause injury.

If your school has a hazardous fence, you should:

have it altered so it is no longer hazardous (for example, replace cut-steel arrow-heads with rounded palisade tops)
isolate it, or
replace it.

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 – NZ Legislation(external link)

Fencing for students with learning needs

Sometimes students with learning needs are at risk of leaving school boundaries, and you may need to think about fencing.

If you think a student is at risk, the first step is for a serious risk assessment to be completed by a learning support practitioner, through the Ministry of Education. Contact your manager of learning support for advice.

The practitioner will recommend fencing or fencing modifications if they deem there is a serious risk to the student and/or individual. A fence may be recommended if alternative solutions are not suitable or are less effective.

While fencing or fencing modifications may support students with learning support needs to access education, behavioural management approaches should also be considered.

Engagement with the school, the whānau and the wider team is an integral part of managing a student or individual’s risk and deciding if fencing is the best option.

The practitioner will complete an assessment and write a report. They will discuss any recommendations with you and the Ministry advisors supporting your school.

You may want to think about:

whether fencing is the best or the only option
the school, the family and the wider team who are responsible for managing the risk
and, importantly, the safety of the students.

Give students every chance to learn to stay in the school grounds. We will consider funding for fencing only after looking at all other solutions.

Occupational therapists work with property delivery to determine the requirements for these fences as they are learner specific. Contact your property advisor for advice.

What the serious risk assessment might recommend

The assessment will identify the risk and make a recommendation based on that risk.

There could be 4 outcomes:

Serious risk: will recommend immediate fencing and the development of a safety and behaviour management plan.
Medium risk: will recommend that a safety and behaviour management plan be developed with learning support staff to review the need for fencing in the first 12 months of the student going to school.
Low risk: will not recommend fencing but may recommend that a safety and behaviour management plan be developed.
No risk: will not recommend any action.

Paying for fencing for students with learning support needs

If the practitioner recommends fencing, they will include it in the Property Modification Report.

The fence will be funded through learning support property modification funding.

Learning support property modifications funding – Education in New Zealand

You need to contribute to the cost if:

the fence was scheduled to be replaced in your 10-Year Property Plan
the fence was going to be put up anyway (before the assessment was done).

10-Year Property Plan – Education in New Zealand

If either of these are the case, we will meet the cost of any special features in the fence.

Learning support property modifications funding webpage for more information.