These thoughts from St Clair School pupil Daniel Mills, 10, were echoed by his classmates as the school celebrated the opening of a large new grassed area of playground on Tuesday morning.
As pupils, staff, parents and community members fanned out across the grassy playground, formerly part of the adjacent former Forbury Park raceway, they had a chance to reflect on the year-long project to expand the playground.
‘‘It’s a delightful space to enjoy the fresh air,’’ Caleb Ong, 10, said.
‘‘It’s so cool to have the fence down at last, just delightful,’’ Francois Delport, 10, said.
‘‘It’s really nice that we got our space from the racing club and the whole community gets to use it,’’ Maja Mazur, 10, said.
‘‘It's good to be able to play rugby out there because there's so much more space,’’ year 6 pupil Nohia said.
Teacher Ali Caldwell said the new playground had been a long time coming, but was ‘‘well worth the wait’’.
The Ministry of Education bought the land from Harness Racing NZ on behalf of the school, at the same time as the Dunedin City Council bought the rest of the former racecourse for possible development and stormwater management.
‘‘That generous purchase by the Ministry of Education meant we could basically double the play area for the school,’’ Whaea Jen said.
The school had been trying to get more land to expand its playground, but without success, she said.
‘‘So, having this new space is amazing and a game-changer for us.’’
Contractor SouthRoads started work on developing the 4833sq m section of the former raceway into playground areas in January 2025.
The work included building fencing, levelling the ground, and installing drainage to protect the school buildings in the event of heavy rain.
Whaea Jen expressed her gratitude to the Ministry of Education, especially the property team, for working so hard to provide the new playground area for the school and wider community.
‘‘And SouthRoads were excellent to work with, despite the many and varied challenges they faced,’’ she said.
