Principal Chris Smith said the Ministry of Education had granted the 330-pupil Dunedin school nearly $2 million to build the new learning centre last year, and had hoped construction would be started this year.
However, it was now likely to begin early next year, he said.
"I think Covid may have caused the delay because engaging engineers is tougher now. Everyone has log-jammed their work and there’s a bit of work going on.
"It would be great if we could be building in February next year."
A design for the building has also been given Ministry of Education approval.
He said the project would be completed in two stages.
Stage one was to build a new learning hub, which would be the equivalent of three teaching spaces.
It would allow the school to provide "flexible and co-operative" teaching spaces.
In modern learning environments, pupils worked together in spaces that were the size of three or four classrooms, with different teachers.
"It means you can meet the needs of all the kids. You'll have an array [of needs] in all classrooms, but if you can share that array across a number of spaces, it's easier to pair like-minded kids up.
"And if you've got kids who are shooting ahead, you've got the ability to support them a bit better. And also those kids that might need a bit more support can be looked after."
Once the learning centre was complete, stage two would begin, which involved the demolition and removal of three old prefabricated classrooms on school grounds, he said.
He hoped the space left after the removal would be used as a "wild area" playground, which may include native trees and a running stream for pupils to play in.
Construction was expected to take two years to complete.
