Growth prompts boost to primaries

Education Minister Chris Hipkins has announced a new primary school in Hobsonville and more classrooms for other areas as part of a $49 million plan for Auckland schools.

Paerata Primary School in South Auckland will be moved from Tuhimata Rd to nearby Jonah Lomu Drive and rebuilt to increase capacity for 370 more students and West Auckland’s Waterview Primary School — which opened only last year — will also expand.

The new school at Scott Pt in Hobsonville, for 650 students from Years 1-8, is due to open in 2021, Hipkins said.

Potential upgrades for existing schools will be revealed in the next few months.

Hipkins made the announcement yesterday at Waterview School, which caters for children in Years 1 to 6, and has a roll of 290 and is earmarked for expansion to take an extra 240 children.

“We know that Waterview Primary School is already struggling with its current facilities in terms of the demand for places here and we want to get ahead of that and are setting aside funding.”

Paerata and Waterview schools had been targeted for growth based on where population pressure is or where demand is likely to grow.

“Here at Waterview we know that there is a lot of subdivision development going on and there is going to be more of that, particularly with things like the Unitec development,” Hipkins said. “We are trying to get ahead of the demand so that the capacity is there, rather than schools becoming overcrowded as the population continues to grow.”

The Government said this year that it would build 4000 new homes on 29ha of Unitec land under the KiwiBuild plan.

The development in the suburb of Mt Albert will hold a mix of affordable KiwiBuild homes for first-home buyers and open housing.