Te Kura Whakatipu o Kawarau, at Hanley’s Farm, had 93 foundation students when it opened on February 8, 2022.
Principal Tania McNamara said this year it was expecting to start with about 505 — stage one capacity was for 450.
It has 12 new classrooms in the design phase — announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford last year, two of those will be for soft and hard tech.
All are expected to be delivered by Southbase Contracting by the start of next year.
"But this year, we’re bursting".
Ms McNamara said classes will again be held in the school’s admin space and teachers had also given up part of their staffroom for another classroom.
"We know that we’ve got these new classrooms coming ... so we’ve looked at the spaces we have and how we can be creative."
Thanks to the generosity of several local businesses, a creative solution arrived last week.
A "container classroom" was transported to the site for the school’s long-term use.
It will initially be used as an inclusive learning space, but its use will evolve with the school.
"It could be an office space, it could be a classroom space, it was just to give us a wee bit of space to grow in to."
Ms McNamara said once the new classrooms were delivered, the school’s capacity would increase to 750 — another build will be required to take it to a full capacity of 1050.
"It’s just crazy, the growth, but when you see the building out this way, it just blows your mind."
