Extra space for country school
A rural Manawatu¯ school has turned "wasted space’’ into a multi-purpose learning area.
Hiwinui School has just finished work a new outdoor learning environment, which it opened on Tuesday night.
The project was part of the school’s five-year property plan and turned an unused outdoor area into a covered room between two classroom blocks.
Work started in November before Covid-19 delayed its completion until now.
Principal Brenda Leigh the school was proud to open the new area and the nice new space encouraged people to use it.
‘‘We look at this space and think 12 months ago, what did it look like? We literally had a wasted space.
‘‘It’s great to have this modern environment, not only for the junior school, they can break out there, and teacher assistants can take small groups.
‘‘Our seniors can book in and our playgroup can come in, as can the community.’’
The area was opened by the school’s youngest pupil, 5-yearold Jackson Brown, cutting the ribbon.
Leigh said the outside area had been a dead space, but now it was like a school hall.
‘‘It will be the area where we can have our assemblies, we can practice our netball. We’ll never have furniture in here as such.
‘‘We just couldn’t ask for more because we just didn’t have anything like this.’’
The new space will ease pressure on other areas of the school, which has about 150 children.
Planning for the build started about three years ago. Leigh said the area was paid for by the Ministry of Education and built by Kynoch Construction.
The school is putting a time capsule underneath the building containing thoughts from the pupils about their time during Covid-19.