Ormiston Senior College’s roll is growing so fast that it’s placing more classrooms onto its sports field to accommodate its pupils.
Principal Tim Botting says the school’s located in one of the fastest growing areas in the country.
“The Ormiston community is growing at a really high rate, there’s new subdivisions popping up all the time and those houses get filled with people.
“There’s a lot of young families moving in and a bit of a bubble coming through from the [nearby] primary school, which is one of the largest in the country at 1200 students.”
Botting says in 2022 the Ministry of Education (MoE) said it expected the school to grow to potentially 3000 pupils.
That would give it the highest number of senior college pupils in New Zealand, he says.
The school doesn’t take out-of-zone pupils as its priority is serving its own community first.
It’s had plans for the last three years to construct a new block which has been “slightly delayed”, Botting says.
“Our stage-one has been approved and building will start at the end of this year.
“That block has two new science labs and a new technology block, adding on to our existing block, as well as eight classroom spaces. That will be really useful and helpful for us.
“The issue was we’re currently at 1400 students and that new build brings us to the capacity of 1365.
“At the time of the build being finished, which is projected to be the start of 2026, we’ll have about 1700 students on-site.
“In the interim, the ministry has granted us some short-term roll-growth buildings.
“They’ll be on our field for now because we have quite a small footprint and any area that’s not the field is likely to be built on in the next five to 10 years.”
Botting says the classrooms will be on the field for at least five years. The school’s made other changes to accommodate its pupils, he says.
“We’ve given up some of our circulation space. Some of the café, the library space, and some of our larger hall areas have been converted into spaces that can be taught in.
“We’ve had to do a little bit of moving and shifting.”
MoE Leader (Hautū) Infrastructure and Digital Scott Evans says the ministry’s providing the school with 20 temporary classrooms to address its roll growth in the short term.
“Ten classrooms are expected to be handed over for use in November. The remaining 10 classrooms will be in place for term one next year.
“A permanent 12-teaching spaces classroom block is also planned. Design has been completed and construction is expected to start in late 2024.
“Further investment is planned to follow. We’ve been meeting Ormiston Senior College regularly and have ensured the school has appropriate staffing entitlements for their growing roll.”
