School rebuild begins – five years on
Construction of Christchurch’s new Banks Avenue School will finally commence next month, more than five years after the work was originally due to begin.
The $14 million building will be on the former Shirley Boys’ High School site on North Pde and comes after Banks Avenue Primary School was significantly damaged during the Christchurch earthquakes.
The rebuild was announced in 2013 as part of the $1.3 billion project to replace or redevelop 115 earthquake-damaged Christchurch schools.
It was originally due for completion by the middle of 2017 with a budget of $15m to $20m.
Construction is expected to take 16 months and will include a hall, which the school’s current site does not have, along with four teaching pods, an administration block, and a library.
The new school will be called Pareawa Banks Avenue School.
Pareawa means ‘‘adorn the banks of the river’’.
About 100 students, staff, parents and former pupils attended a symbolic sod turning service yesterday to mark the
start of the development.
Principal Toni Burnside said it was an important milestone for the school.
‘‘We should have been in our new school in 2017, so we’ve got photos of the children who should have been here,’’ she said.
‘‘There will be five cohorts of children who have missed out.’’
She thanked the parent community for their patience during the long process. ‘‘[Wednesday] was the first time I’d stepped onto our new school and that in itself was quite emotional.
‘‘Usually for a sod turning you would choose dignitaries to do it, but we’ve chosen our children, to represent past and current students.’’
The Ministry of Education’s Kim Shannon said the new building would allow the school to increase its roll from 375 to ‘‘a master plan roll of 600’’.
Christchurch East MP Poto Williams said the rebuild was great news for the school and the community. ‘‘They have had a couple of delays along the way and some major issues, and I’ve supported the school through those, so it’s important to be here,’’ she said.
It is not yet known if the site will include access to the former Shirley Boys’ High School gym which has been vacant since the school relocated to New Brighton in May 2019. The empty building has been heavily vandalised and in September 2020 The Press reported it would cost $3m repair the damage.