Tararua school ‘moves into the 21st century’
A Tararua school now has some much-needed extra classroom space after the arrival of a new roll-growth classroom.
Mangatainoka School had a new classroom delivered on Wednesday and the children watched intently as the new building, which was brought up from Wellington in seven pieces, was craned into place and put together.
The school was a recipient of Government funding announced last year for building improvements or roll-growth classrooms.
Mangatainoka’s new building is a double class with a dividing wall.
Principal Jason Edwardswas pleased to have the new class arrive and said it would make a huge difference.
The school’s roll had grown to 90 a couple of years ago, and even though it was about 60 now, the school had been using the library building as a classroom since.
‘‘We’ve got three classroom spaces, but a couple of years ago we had a fourth class and we had no room for them,’’ he said.
‘‘We squashed them in with our library and on amezzanine floor. The Ministry [of Education] looked at their crystal ball with the network of schools over here and said in their wisdom they will put a class in over here.’’
Edwards said it was hard to work when they didn’t have an actual classroom for the fourth class of children.
He said even if the school’s roll did not explode in the next couple of years, theywere still under their required floor space for the number of pupils they had.
‘‘We’ve been a bit envious whenwe visited new schools and they have lots of spaces to work with kids and to do things. We haven’t had those. It’s allowed us to move into the 21st century.’’
The building still has to be connected to services and have work done, but it should be operational by mid-June.
With the new Te Ahu a TūrangaManawatū Tararua highway being built and new subdivisions being built, it is believed the area’s population will grow.