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Three new primary schools and a secondary campus are set to be built within the next two years, the Ministry of Education says.
Together the schools will cater for for 2000 extra school students.
The Government has funded four brand new schools for three of the nation’s fastest growing suburbs.
Parents can expect three new primary schools and one secondary campus to be built over the next two years, creating room for 2000 extra students.
Auckland’s Flat Bush - with asoaring population of 50,000 - will get one of the primary schools, with another planned for Massey-Redhills in the city’s west, the Ministry of Education said.
The third primary school, and the secondary campus, are both being built in Rolleston, near Christchurch, where the population has boomed from about 3000 20 years ago to 30,000 today.
Heath McNeil, Ormiston Primary principal, which is near where the new Flat Bush primary will be built, told the Herald his school’s experience shows how important it is for planners to get ahead of population growth.
His school opened nine years ago with 100 students, and is now New Zealand’s largest primary with almost 1300 students.
“We went through a few years where we were using the staff room, library and hall office space” as classrooms, he said.
While the four new projects have been years in the planning, the ministry said it accelerated the builds to give relief where student numbers were booming most.
Sam Fowler, the ministry’s head of property, said his team identified these areas in 2023 as part of Budget 2024 planning.
“Rolleston and Ormiston have experienced the most significant growth across the motu, growing by 803 students (14%) and 983 students (13%) respectively between 2021 and 2023,” Fowler said.
The four new builds match the scale of school-building from the last five years.
Building between two and four new schools per year has been typical, the ministry said.
Auckland’s new schools
Flat Bush South West Primary is being built on Murphys Rd with 28 classrooms and room for 600 Years 1-6 students.
It will have a three-storey teaching block, along with admin areas, a multi-purpose hall and library block.
Construction had been scheduled to start late this year, with the ministry saying “enabling” work has begun at the site.
The school’s Murphys Rd site sits on the edge of Auckland where only a few nearby houses have so far been finished.
Ormiston Primary School principal and Auckland Primary Principals' Association secretary Heath McNeil says his school opened with 100 students nine years ago but has now grown to be the nation's biggest primary with almost 1300 students. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
McNeil said the school is the final of eight planned in the ministry’s 2007 Flat Bush Area Strategy.
“There was always going to be these Flat Bush eight,” he said.
“Five primary schools, two junior colleges and a senior college.”
McNeil said the area had one of the highest concentrations of children of anywhere in the country.
That is because, while there is a mix of housing, there are also a lot of larger homes in which multiple, extended families live together.
It meant there were about 20 school aged children for every 100 homes in his catchment area, with some pockets producing 50 children per 100 houses, he said.
That has led his school to go through three building phases in just nine years of existence, and to still be reliant on about 16 modular classrooms.
The next challenge for the area will be accommodating these children once they hit secondary age.
McNeil said Ormiston Senior College may soon need to double in size and become one of the country’s biggest high schools as it could swell to more than 3000 students.
“So definitely getting in front of the construction and the population is the way to go,” he said about building the new primary on the edge of the city.
The second Auckland primary is planned for 1 Dunlop Rd near the Westgate Shopping Centre.
As with the Flat Bush primary, the Massey-Redhills Primary’s location is still semi-rural, but is located where planners hope future housing will be built.
The school will have 28 classrooms for 600 Years 1-6 students along with a library, hall, admin areas and some facilities for use with the Arohanui Special School.
It is expected to be finished at the end of 2026.
Rolleston’s new schools
A succession of new schools have been built and opened in Rolleston in recent decades.
The town, about 25km west of Christchurch city centre, is on a fast-track to becoming a city and has had a flood of new infrastructure built from swimming pools and community centres to supermarkets.
Rolleston South School is the latest project with 12 classrooms planned for 250 Year 1-8 students.
Two of the classrooms will initially be used as a temporary admin block, while a playground and playing court will also be built.
The ministry doesn’t yet have a start date for construction but expects the school on Harrison Drive to be finished this time next year.
A new senior secondary campus is also currently being built on Rolleston College’s grounds.
It will have room for 575 Year 9-13 students.
Rolleston College and the ministry had been in conflict over the build at the start of this year after the project budget was cut down, but in June they agreed on a deal for the first phase of the project to go ahead.
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