NEW SCHOOL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 130, 2 May 1940, Page 8

NEW SCHOOL

INTERMEDIATE BUILDING. WORK NEARS COMPLETION. The delay caused by difficulty in obtaining certain materials having now been overcome, rapid progress is being made on the construction of the new Intermediate School building in Ferguson Street. The work is entering on its final stages, and it is estimated that the building will be finished in about two months. It will certainly be ready in plenty cf time for occupation at the beginning of the next school year. A very good idea can now be obtained of what the finished school will be like. The exterior is practically finished, except for some small items of work, and the interior work is similarly advanced. Borne of the classrooms are now receiving their final coats of paint. In others small details of carpentry, plumbing and plastering remain to be done. When work was started in March of last year it was thought that the building would be finished by December. However, delays arose in obtaining some materials for joinery, some of the fittings. and phi storing materials Tneso have now come to hand, and whereas a few weeks ago only eight men were working on the building, there is now, a much larger number helping to complete the construction. No further delay in obtaining materials is anticipated; The size of the school can be appreciated from the exterior, it contains 17 classrooms, 10 cloakrooms, a laundry block, model fiat (several small rooms), cookery room, library, geography room, two science rooms, two boys’ workrooms, principal’s room, vice-principal’s room, men’s and women’s staff rooms and a staff common room, janitor’s room, and numerous small store-rooms. There are bicycle and shelter sheds outside, and a boiler room under the building. It is interesting to note that the roof contains no fewer than 65,000 tiles. The eastern wing is where the work is most advanced, and here the classrooms need only their final paint, which some are already receiving. A typical classroom is 26 feet by 24 feet. The rooms for specialised subjects, such as science rooms, are 36 by 24 feet. The painting scheme will be carried out so as to give pleasant variations. Green, cream, blue and pink will be used in the classrooms; the corridors will be given a light buff and the_ workshops and laundry a light iiscuit shade. Work on the art room is already finished.

The building is designed to form three and a-half sides of a hollow square, the large classroom windows facing the outside and the corridor, which is also well-provided with windows and runs right round the building, occupying the inside of the square. The whole building is very light and airy. There is plenty of provision for heating in the winter, however. The central heating system has already been practically completed-, The cloakrooms are dotted round the building at various points, and are formed by recesses in the corridor between the classrooms. One of the most interesting features of them is the provision made for the drying of clothes. Pipes which are. part of the central heating system run along each coat rack, and once a wet garment is hung on them and the heat turned on any garment should be well dried by the time the pupil has to return home. Tiled hand basins are also provided. MOST MODERN EQUIPMENT. The boys’ workshop block needs only the fitting of some doors and painting before it is ready for furnishing. This block lies in a building at the back of the school, separate from the other parts but connected to the main boys’ cloakroom by a covered walk. The block contains two rooms for manual training and has a shelter shed behind it. Each of the rooms will be provided with adequate locker accommodation, which is ready to be installed. The counterpart .of this block, for the girls, will be the laundry room and model flat, and these will be two of the most interesting parts of the building. The work on them is well advanced. In the laundry room gas coppers will be used, and two of these are on hand for installation. The model flat contains a bedroom, sittingroom, kitchen, scullery and bathroom, and will be fitted, just as an ordinary flat, for instruction in housekeeping-. The fittings will include a bath, electric stove, sink, safe and a ga6 fire for the sittingroom. The flat will be furnished by the Education Department.

Electric and gas stoves will be provided in the cookery room, where tables for work and demonstration have yet to be installed. This room, with* the laundry, flat and teachers’ rooms, is in the western wing. The teachers have separate rooms for men and women, fitted with all conveniences, including provision for the making of morning and afternoon tea, and a very spacious common room. Its walls will* be lined with box seats in which material may be stored. The principal’s and vice-principal’s rooms are near the main entrance, at the corner of the eastern wing and the main portion of the building. The bicycle sheds and shelter sheds are'now ready. There is accommodation for 350 bicycles. A considerable amount of asphalting has still to be done in the grounds, the area to be covered being about 300 square yards. A 6trip will be covered from the front of the building straight through the yard to the boys’ workshops at the back. This will bo 50 feet wide and from it paths will radiate to all parts of the building. , The main work on the building, covering carpentering and plastering, should be completed in two weeks at the most. -Five or six weeks longer will probably be needed for painting .and the usual large ■ number of odd jobs that have to be done before the building is ready for occupation. It will not be long before the city has the advantage of the latest development in education, by which primary and se.condarv departments are linked.