NEW SCHOOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1001, 18 June 1930, Page 11

NEW SCHOOL

POST-PRIMARY EDUCATION PLANS COMPLETE FOR OTAHUHU The Auckland Education Board’s architects have completed the plans and specifications for the post-primary school, which is to be erected on a site at Otahuliu. and the excavation of the site lias been almost completed. The building, which is to be a two-storeyed structure of brick and concrete, will be completed by the beginning of the next school year, February, 1931. The property, which has been acquired by the board piecemeal as opportunity offered, to give the required frontage, is 13 acres in all. The site is a level one on tlie Mangere Road, between the monument at the junction of the Great South Road and the railway crossing on the left side going out from Otahuhu. Plans have been prepared for a two-storeyed building, comprising a main block with two wings, and of this only tlie front block and the west wing are to be constructed immediately. These two portions will provide for 'about 400 children and comprise eight classrooms, two science rooms, an art room, a library, a headmaster’s room, a common room and the usual cloak rooms. In addition there will be a self-contained building at the rear, comprising carpenters’ and engineers’ workshops. The main block will face north and the wing to be built faces west. Most of the classrooms will be in the cast wing, facing the sun, and the science and other specialised wings will be in the other wing, when the building is completed. The total number of wings will then be 2". The main block is in free Gothic style, instead of the free Renaissance style, -which has been adopted by the Education Board in the past.

The Education Board lias not yet been advised as to what function tlie new school will fulfil. The decision rests with the Education Department, which is now awaiting the report of the Educational Commission. The school may be a fully-equipped secondary school, similar to the existing grammar schools, a junior high school or a technical high school, and has been designed to fulfil any of these functions.

Nothing definite will be known as to the future of the school until the commission has reported to _ Parliament, which it must do within 14 days after completing its deliberations. A definite education policy will then be outlined.