Read the latest update on our building projects as they stand to date.

3 July 2018

Christchurch Girls’ High School redevelopment

Dear Parents and Caregivers

The redevelopment of Christchurch Girls’ High School is one of the largest and most complex projects in the Christchurch Schools Rebuild because of the scale of works, site restrictions and challenges with being able to provide alternative teaching and learning spaces on site while building is still occurring.

The level of work being done at Christchurch Girls’ High School is vast with the completion of the new Arts Faculty building and the work on level four of the main block which is due to be completed at the start of August.

As a Board, our priority and responsibilities are to the students, staff and wider school community. We want to ensure we provide an effective teaching and learning environment while looking after the health, safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. However, as the project has progressed it has become apparent that the construction work is putting additional demands on them. Students and staff are operating through some challenging circumstances and that to continue on the current course could be detrimental to teaching and learning.

Over the coming weeks, the Ministry is to prepare a programme that outlines the forward progress. Once the Board has received this, we will have a better idea of the extent of this delay. In the meantime, the school will have full use of all the buildings without any disruptions during the pause. Both the Board and Ministry want to develop a cohesive long term plan for the main block and do not want to rush into a solution that will not meet the needs of the school.
Therefore, after careful consideration the Board and Ministry have jointly decided to pause the redevelopment work at the completion of Level 4 to allow the Ministry and their consultants the time needed to review and reevaluate project methodology.

Our absolute priority is to get this right.

We will share all relevant information as it becomes available and answer questions where possible. To that end, should you have any questions please send them to building@cghs.school.nz and we will publish responses in a “frequently asked questions” forum under a building tag on OnStream commencing Week 3 of Term 3.

Yours sincerely

Pauline Duthie and Cymon Allfrey

Principal and Chairperson Board of Trustees