We are excited to announce the start of construction to increase the size of our school. The building contract has been awarded to Holmes Construction, and we are looking forward to working with them to achieve a great outcome.

Things you should know:

- Temporary fencing has been installed around much of the building area

- From Monday 2nd August, a temporary plywood fence will be erected

- Construction on the new teaching spaces will begin on Monday 9th August

- The project is expected to be completed by late November 2022

You may have also noticed a digger at our school last week. Following recent flooding, the digger was onsite to clear debris from the stream at the back of our land. Clearing the debris has allowed water to flow more freely through the culvert, therefore clearing the overflow from our bike track. This work was completed by Wellington Water.

We have been provided with images showing how our new building will look:

Internal ground floor view

Internal first floor view

External front view

External back view

We can also share the floor plans for the new hub:

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Here is a link to a virtual walk through of the building.

We are thrilled to be receiving a new building, although we are mindful that that such a large construction project may cause some disruption and inconvenience along the way. However, we believe the final result will be worth it!

Parking, access and safety

Having a large construction project happening onsite while school is operating requires very careful planning, and clear guidelines and expectations around health and safety for all involved.

The construction area will be completely fenced off. Temporary fencing will initially be used for the first week of term, until a more solid fence can be installed, which will remain in place until completion of the project. All contractors working on the new build will remain within the fenced off area, and have their offices and bathrooms based inside the area.

We have arranged for the fencing to have viewing panels so that ākonga (students) and our community can follow the progress of the project.

All members of the construction crew will all undergo a Police vetting check before starting work on the project. It is very unlikely that construction workers will come into contact with our tamariki, as all building work will take place behind the fencing.

Construction vehicles will access the school site outside of our drop off and pick up times (8:30 - 9:15am; 2:30 - 3:20pm). Their vehicles will use the school driveway, and then move beyond the construction fencing by our caretaker’s shed. Vehicles will then move along the back of Harakeke Hub, behind fencing.

Apart from Brian, our caretaker, no staff members or students will have any access to the construction area.

Parking: With such a large construction project underway, parking will become much tighter on school grounds and on the roads around school.

Several parking bays in our school carpark will be assigned to the construction crew and will be placed behind the construction fencing. Other vehicles from the construction crew will be parked on the public roads around Amesbury. This means there will be less parking available in and around school.

There will still be plenty of access for our school community as we have a functioning drop off zone that will be operating throughout the project. We ask that this zone only be used for drop off and pick up, and if your child is not waiting in the drop off area, please be considerate and move off until your child arrives. This will help to keep traffic moving and keep queues of cars to a minimum.

The school will still have a number of parking bays available for parents and caregivers of Koru students. If the child you are picking up is not in Koru Hub, please do not park in the school car park.

If you live close to school, we encourage your child/ren to walk or wheel to school as this will help to reduce the congestion around school.

If a large number of vehicles try to access school or the surrounding roads, we anticipate this will create congestion, especially in poor weather. We ask our school community to be respectful of our neighbours at all times. Please do not park across driveways, even temporarily to drop off children or adults. It is important that we treat our neighbours well, even if this means taking a few extra minutes to park a little further away or moving off to find a safe and legal place to stop.

If you have other whānau or friends picking up your child/ren, please ensure you have passed on this information to them. Thank you for your help in keeping our tamariki safe.

We are so pleased that construction on our new building is about to begin, and we are very much looking forward to moving into the space towards the end of next year.

Warm regards,

The Amesbury team