Planning has started for a major redevelopment of Wellington Girls’ College as Education Minister Chris Hipkins today unveiled ambitious expansion plans.
Chris Hipkins said the $25 million redevelopment was overdue as the school had a growing roll and increasingly relied on ageing relocatable classrooms.
“The college has always had to manage space carefully as it occupies a constrained site.
“It’s steadily increasing roll means there is additional pressure on staff and students to utilise limited space as best they can.
“The redevelopment work will boost capacity and relieve pressure giving the school much-needed extra space.”
The project involves building a new teaching block providing 16 high quality teaching spaces.
The hall will also be extended and more space added to the learning support and student counselling areas of the administration block enhancing the school’s support for wellbeing.
“Like other urban schools with limited space, the best solution was for Wellington Girls’ College to build up, which it has done successfully in earlier developments.
“Wellington Girls’ College is one of a number of major investments this government is making at schools across the country this year. On Tuesday, I announced a multi-million dollar improvement to Botany Downs College in Auckland and there will be more to follow.
“Building quality learning environments is a major priority for this government. Students deserve to learn in quality environments and we are committed to delivering them.
“Starting in last year’s Budget, we are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to support our young people’s education both in terms of quality learning but also overall wellbeing.”