$14.5m redevelopment for Clayton Park School, Auckland

Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye today announced that around $14.5 million has been approved for the redevelopment of Clayton Park School in Auckland.

“This announcement is the result of several years of work and completes an important phase in what is one of our most complex school redevelopments,” says Ms Kaye.

“The school has experienced issues with aged and leaky buildings and asbestos.

“I am pleased that the redevelopment will see most of the school’s existing buildings replaced. This solution will add 19 permanent teaching spaces but retain the recently built hall and administration areas.

“This is an important announcement for the local community, because Clayton Park School has faced considerable challenges due to the poor condition of its buildings. 

“This investment will ensure the school has a modern, innovative learning environment, which supports teachers and students to raise achievement.

“Clayton Park is a key school in the South West Manurewa area. It is actively seeking to become part of the local Community of Learning, making its new facilities also available to a wider number of local students and their families.

“We are focused on ensuring that every education dollar has the widest reach possible, and big infrastructure investments such as this must show good returns in active community inclusiveness.

“The Government invested $1.4 million in temporary classrooms at Clayton Park School, to ensure better teaching and learning environments while the condition of the existing buildings was fully assessed. 

“These temporary classrooms will remain in place during the redevelopment work, and will be removed upon its completion.

“The revamped school will provide flexible learning spaces, which can be easily reconfigured to support a range of teaching and learning approaches.

“This project represents the outcome of thorough planning. I want to acknowledge the work of the school’s Board of Trustees, principal and staff to get to this point. The Ministry of Education has worked with the Board to enable their vision for the school to become reality.

“We only get one chance in a generation to deliver a significant change in school facilities, so it’s important we take the time to get it right.

“The next phase is to work with the school community on detailed design work, with construction due to start later this year.”

About Clayton Park School
Clayton Park School is a Year 1 to 8 Full Primary school located in Wattle Downs, Auckland.

What are the issues regarding Clayton Park’s buildings?

The school’s buildings are in poor condition due to factors such as age, unresolved weather tightness over a number of years and poor design and construction.

Why were temporary classrooms necessary?

The Ministry of Education has had an interim solution of six brand new temporary relocatable classrooms that were completed at the end of 2015 at a cost of $1.4 million. This has been provided to ensure students have a good environment in the short term, and has enabled what is a very complex redevelopment to be worked through.

What’s the process from here?
A detailed timeline is being developed. Design, procurement and review are expected to be completed by late 2016, when works can commence. Based on current information available, the redevelopment will take around 24 months to complete. The final cost of the project will be determined once procurement processes are complete, but is expected to be approximately $14.5 million.

About innovative learning environments
Unlike traditional classrooms, where teachers addressed students from the front of the class, today’s teachers work more collaboratively with each other and students, in small and large groups and individually according to students’ learning needs.

When new schools are built or existing schools upgraded, this is an opportunity to create comfortable, well-connected and flexible learning spaces that support the creation of an innovative learning environment.

These spaces can be changed to support a range of teaching and learning approaches on any given day, and are also able to adapt to broader changes as education practices evolve over time. Acoustics, lighting, technology, heating and air quality are of a high standard to help students concentrate on learning.