Project Update 3

Sale of Remuera Road Property

Following our last update in April, the Trust Board was pleased to confirm the sale of the current site of our Girls’ School and Preschool on Remuera Road to the Auckland Hebrew Congregation.

We are particularly delighted that another faith-based organisation has purchased the property and that they are planning to use part of the campus as an educational facility, which sits very well with the heritage of the site.

Pleasingly, this outcome provides for continued uninterrupted use of the Remuera Road campus by our Girls’ School and Preschool until they are ready to move to their new facilities at Shore Road when the new buildings are complete.

Shore Road Campus

In our last update, and in the most recent Piper, we shared the preliminary design images of the two new buildings - the new Specialist Facilities and Boys’ Senior School Building, and the new Girls’ School. They are both impressive, contemporary designs that will make striking additions to the campus. Feedback from our community on the initial look has been very favourable.

Since then, design work has further progressed to look at potential floor plans which is generating both earnest discussion and excitement as ‘wish lists’ begin to take shape. Both Mr Peter Cassie, Boys’ School Principal and Ms Juliet Small, Girls’ School Principal are pleased with the progress to date as they lead discussions with their staff to ensure the new facilities offer the very best outcome for teaching and learning. Both Principals have reiterated that ‘boys need to be educated as boys’ and ‘girls need to be educated as girls,’ ensuring that each school will be maintained as a distinct entity.

Like the exterior to the buildings, the interiors will have some very striking features – the most notable is that both buildings feature distinctive atriums with large, wide staircases that double as access between floors and seating steps that can be used both socially and as an auditorium for teaching, group gatherings or class presentations.

In our next update, we look forward to sharing more information about the internal configuration, including detailed images.

Enabling Works on Shore Road Campus

With construction currently anticipated to begin in earnest at the start of 2020, some ‘enabling projects’ are scheduled for later this year. This will include reconfiguring the Gate 1 entrance and driveway to provide both access and egress, with all traffic required to only turn left in and left out of this gate. The Gate 2 exit will remain as an exit only for the immediate future, with the long-term plan to turn this stretch of driveway within the school grounds into a pedestrian precinct. Our aim is to minimise traffic flow through the campus to ensure the safety of our students.

Six temporary, relocatable classrooms will be moved onsite to facilitate the period of construction. Once work gets underway, the old library building, the current staffroom and the Middle School classrooms in between will be demolished to make way for the Senior Boys’ Classroom and Specialist Facility. To allow for the resultant shortfall of teaching space, three temporary relocatable classrooms for Middle School boys will be located on Roselle Lawn, along with a toilet block. These will have play spaces and a walkway back to the Expressway. Another Middle School relocatable will be placed adjacent to the current relocatable classrooms at the edge of the field, whilst two further temporary classrooms for the Senior School will be placed across the driveway to the side of Roselle House.

Over the Christmas break, it is currently anticipated that hoardings will be erected around the entire construction site encompassing both sites for the new buildings and half of the playing field. The construction site will have its own vehicle access via Gate 3 and all construction traffic will be restricted to this area.

Saint Kentigern is very fortunate to have unrestricted access to the Martyn Wilson fields across from the lower end of the campus. Discussions are currently underway with the Council over the use of Bloodworth Park for rugby and cricket.

A link to the map showing the location of the enabling works can be found at the bottom of this page.

Traffic Management around the Shore Road Campus during construction

We would like to assure our families that as part of the planning work, a great deal of specialist insight has been sought, in conjunction with the Schools’ operational management, to best manage traffic activity during the proposed construction period. Of foremost consideration is the safety of all our students at all times.

During construction, all trade vehicles will be restricted to the enclosed building site to allow for continued ease of access to the campus by both our families and staff. The School will make available a large portion of the upper sports field to the successful contractor for the duration of construction activities.

The new two-way access/egress through Gate 1 (to come into effect in Term 1, 2020) will increase the ease of access into and out of the campus.

Student travel to and from school

The Pakuranga Campus has long had an exceedingly efficient bus service that serves their community well, giving large numbers of students quick and easy arrival and departure in a short timeframe at each end of the day. Currently 32% of our Boys’ School students travel to school by bus, a figure we intend to see grow for both the boys and the Girls’ School. Chartered transport is a key component of the proposed strategy for future traffic management and aligns with that of Auckland Transport. We are reviewing the increase of private bus services to the Shore Road campus, having already added a further route from the Eastern Bays at the start of Term 3, that will service both the Boys’ School and the current Girls’ School campus. A Resource Consent has already been obtained to extend the existing bus bays on Shore Road to allow for a more comprehensive bus service.

Preschool

The Director of Preschool will be visiting other centres in the coming months with the view to preparing a business case, later this year, for future Preschool facilities. A client brief will then be prepared to inform consultant design work, currently anticipated to commence in 2020. 

If you have any questions or would like more information about the Phase 1 Projects, please send an email to masterplan@saintkentigern.com.