Taieri College in growth mode

Taieri College principal David Hunter at what will eventually become the school's new reception area, staff room, administration offices, library, information centre, and eight new classrooms. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Taieri College principal David Hunter at what will eventually become the school's new reception area, staff room, administration offices, library, information centre, and eight new classrooms. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Taieri College is bustling with life again after opening its doors last week, and plenty of time has been spent trying to work out how to fit more pupils into a school with fewer classrooms.

Principal David Hunter said the school roll was on the rise again, with 1015 pupils enrolled this year.

While he was delighted with the positive trend, he said the school had eight fewer classrooms this year because of the demolition of a classroom block.

The demolition was to make way for the school's new $3 million-plus state-of-the-art reception area, staff room, administration offices, library, information centre, and eight new classrooms, including science laboratories.

''We are squeezing more pupils into less classrooms at the moment.

''We've put a jigsaw puzzle together. Everyone is accommodated and everyone has a classroom every hour.

''There's been a lot of work gone into that.''

To help accommodate some of the spillover, he said the school had been able to rent rooms at the Mosgiel Abilities Centre in Green St.

''We've been fortunate enough to rent some of that space, which has been really handy for our music department.

''There's quite a bit of space - enough to house music classes and some practice rooms as well.''

He said the building site was a hive of activity and had proven to be a little disruptive to school operations, but everyone at the school was working through it because there was a clear reward at the end.

''We're all OK with it because we know what we're getting.

''It's a short-term distraction, but it will hopefully be complete around October or November this year, and we'll have three new buildings to make use of.

''Everyone is making sacrifices while the new development is taking place.''

He said the open plan administration office which was temporarily situated in the school hall ''is what it is'', but admitted he had learnt a lot about his colleagues that he probably wouldn't have if they were working in their old environment with separate offices.

''We're looking forward to the new administration block being completed.''

 

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