Renewed life for old school grounds

FUTURE FOUNDATIONS: Dr Stuart Middleton with the first four classrooms at the building site of Manukau Institute of Technology’s school of secondary-tertiary studies.

Relevant offers

Fleets of trucks are making some special deliveries at the old Bairds Intermediate school grounds this month.

They’re delivering 40 relocated classrooms for Manukau Institute of Technology’s new school of secondary-tertiary studies.

The joint venture with several Counties Manukau colleges will provide a four-year course so students who aren’t achieving at school can study for their NCEA and a technical or vocational qualification.

Institute external relations director Stuart Middleton says the old Bairds Intermediate buildings have been largely unused since it became part of Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in 2001.

Those original classrooms had "reached the end of their useful life" and it proved cheaper to replace them rather than renovate, he says.

So surplus classrooms from Albany Senior High School are being relocated by the Education Ministry for the new secondary-tertiary campus.

Dr Middleton says the classrooms are "flexible and functional".

They can be made smaller or bigger depending on space requirements.

Unlike at most schools, the classrooms will form a modular shape with two lines of buildings and a covered deck area in between.

"It’ll be a nice, easy environment to work in," he says.

The first four classrooms have already arrived and were blessed on Monday.

Once the rest are on site, construction will start on the new school, which the institute is leasing from the ministry.

It’s due to open in May and until then the inaugural intake of students will have a temporary home across the road at the institute’s north campus.

The secondary-tertiary school will have a full roll of 300 students who will also have the use of a large field.

Enrolments close on February 19.

Contact Lyn Newton on 968-8000 or email lyn.newton@manukau.ac.nz for more information.

- © Fairfax NZ News