New beginning for school

The site of a fire that destroyed a classroom block at Paraparaumu School has been blessed, as construction on the replacement building gets under way.

Koro Don Te Maipi performed the blessing for the new 700 square-metre building, on the eastern side of the school grounds, last Thursday

The new building will contain six classrooms, equipped to open up and allow students to work in common spaces. Workers are preparing the site for construction now, with the building scheduled to be finished before term 1 next year.

Principal Steven Caldwell said he was excited to use the new building, which would encourage the use of modern learning techniques.

‘‘It caters for social interaction and self-directed learning. We can’t wait. It’ll be a really awesome addition.’’

The new design was originally meant to include five classrooms and a library, but has changed. The library will now be relocated to a spare classroom elsewhere in the school.

The old building, which contained four classrooms, the school library and a resource room, was burned down by three teenagers in August 2014.

The youth justice process has since occurred.

The school takes students from years 1 to 8 and has experienced roll growth since the fire. The cur- rent roll is 215, up from 160 kids it had 18 months ago. Next term, a class will need to be held in the hall.

‘‘It’s posed some challenges, with accommodating the kids,’’ Caldwell said. ’’We’ve managed, but when the building is done the pressure goes.’’

He said he was grateful for the community’s help during the transition.

‘‘The support we’ve got from the community in terms of donations, teacher resources and library books was really overwhelming.’’

For the blessing, five rocks, one each from the Otaki and Waikanae rivers and the Mangaone, Wharemauku and Whareroa streams, were placed on the site and will be buried.

The stones will rest in the building’s entranceway, and in the four corners.

A basket of dirt, donated by Otaki College, was also placed and each rock was covered by a fern to represent shelter.