Multi-million dollar classrooms opened at Ngaio School, Wellington

Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye visited Ngaio School in Wellington this morning to formally open a block of eight new teaching spaces.

“The new block is part of a $3.3 million upgrade, aimed at addressing a growing roll as well as weather-tightness issues in some buildings,” says Ms Kaye.

“I’d like to acknowledge the community for their patience while the upgrade has been carried out, and in particular the school’s leadership for the way they’ve engaged with this project.

“The school has had to accommodate increased numbers of students, while at the same time having classes out of operation so that remediation work could be carried out.

“The Ministry of Education has provided temporary teaching spaces to mitigate the impact, and everyone involved has worked closely together in the best interests of the school and its students.

“It’s a great day for the school and community to celebrate having this fantastic new teaching block up and running.

“There’s still some remaining remediation work to do on some teaching spaces, but the overall upgrade is nearing completion, and will ensure the school is well set up to enable students to learn to the very best of their capabilities.

“The new teaching spaces will provide innovative learning environments that support new ways of teaching, such as collaborative learning.

“Ngaio is a future-focused school which embraces this approach. An example is ‘The Clinic’, where parents from the school community share their knowledge and passion for a range of subjects during lunchtime drop-in sessions, with the focus on fun, exploration and student-led learning.”

Notes:

About Ngaio School
Ngaio School is a decile 10, state co-educational contributing school (years 1-6). Its roll as at July 2014 is 521 students.

About modern learning environments
Unlike traditional classrooms, where teachers address students from the front of the class, today’s teachers work more collaboratively with students, either in groups or individually according to students’ learning needs.

When new schools are built or existing schools upgraded, this is an opportunity to invest in modern standards which support new teaching styles and offer flexible, comfortable environments for learning.

Spaces can be changed to suit teaching programmes, and acoustics, lighting, technology, heating and air quality are of a high standard to help students concentrate on learning.