These are the plans for our School's redevelopment from Designgroup Stapleton Elliott, who have been working with us.

Our school, now 140 years in existence, has the opportunity to renew its physical facilities in what could be described as a ‘once in lifetime’ opportunity. We want to get it as right as we can, knowing that the changes we make will impact future learners for generations to come.

Initially, we worked with the Ministry of Education to design our ‘Master Plan’. This is the long term (20 to 30 year horizon) vision where the size and ultimate design of the school is determined, based on a range of statistical data and the likely future educational needs of our community.

We then focused on understanding how our community wants to have education delivered to them. This was set out in a core document called an ‘Education Brief’. Some of you will recall that the Board previously consulted with the ENS community to ensure we understood what design best suited the educational needs of our community. This resulted in the Education Brief being prepared, and working with the Ministry of Education’s design consultants, a resulting preliminary design for a new block to replace our oldest and no longer fit for purpose buildings.

The underlying concept with our Education Brief was to ensure we have attractive spaces that are flexible, light, and efficient and suit the way we wish to deliver our education activities. We also involved Iwi to ensure it is culturally appropriate. It is fair to say we are extremely pleased with the end result.

Because of the relatively small sized grounds of Elmwood, we will be getting a further two storied block adjacent to the main two storied building that will have flexible spaces (i.e., can be large or small) the equivalent size of effectively 4 classrooms on each floor (i.e., 8 classrooms in total). We are pleased to be able to show you the basic design – please see the plans above and below in this article. They will also be in our redevelopment section on the website under Shaping Education for the Future.

Being flexible, teachers will be able to work separately or together, opening up or closing in the various spaces depending on the teaching and learning activities occurring at any particular time. Covered outdoor spaces, wet/art areas as well as the usual traditional teaching spaces will all be able to be easily utilised in a flexible manner.