Green School is on track for Feb
One of New Zealand’s newest schools is taking shape in a rural area of Taranaki – and despite charging between $12,000 and $24,000 a year in fees, only six student places remain unfilled.
With less than three months to go before Green School New Zealand opens its doors on a 120-acre site between New Plymouth and Oakura, managers say the huge construction project is going to plan.
Work to build three large classroom ‘‘pods’’ is almost finished, with a fourth to come, while the conversion of a barn into a cafe, car park and meditation deck is under way.
Leslie Medema, head of learning for Green School Support Office in New Zealand, said they were set to open by the start of the school year. ‘‘It is right on track, which is shocking to some people,’’ she laughed.
The Green School is being set up by Taranaki couple Michael and Rachel Perrett, whose children attended the Green School in Bali, and will be unique in New Zealand.
It will operate on the ideals of sharing and caring for the environment through hands-on learning, and eventually cater to about 500 pupils, from preschoolers up to years 1 to 13.
However, when it opens in February the school will have up to 55 students.
Eight teaching positions have been filled, giving an initial teacher-student ratio of about 1:5.
Some 50,000 trees are being planted on the site and the classrooms are being built by New Plymouth-based Clelands Construction. Site foreman Heinrich Fourie said nothing was going to waste.
Fourie said on a large project such as this the skip bin would be emptied at least five times a week, but while building the school it had been emptied only three times in five months due to recycling and repurposing materials.
Radha Baird, the first Kiwi to graduate from Green School Bali, visited and was astounded by the campus.
‘‘I wish I’d come to this school instead of the Bali one,’’ she said.