Every single room is being used as a classroom, including the principal's office. New teachers are being turned away because the school just doesn't have the space. Brookfield Primary School is "bursting at the seams" and other schools across the region are experiencing similar roll growth. Principals are crying out
New primary school for Tauranga: $16m invested into Brookfield Primary School
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Brookfield School principal Ngaere Durie when the announcement was made. Photo / George Novak
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Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced the Education Growth Plans for the region at Brookfield School yesterday.
The announcement came as a surprise for principal Ngaere Durie, whose face lit up at the news.
"I am a little bit speechless," she said. "But I am over the moon."
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Durie said every single space in the school was being used as a classroom, including her own office.
"Twice a week we have maths club in my office. The library is a classroom, the resource room is used for languages, the staffroom is used for reading club as well as music, tutoring and Mandarin extension and Spanish," she said.
"We use every space in the school."
Durie said there was a waiting list at the school for new teachers and applicants were being turned away because the school was "too packed".
"New classrooms and a new school will give us an opportunity to not turn anyone away," she said. "We are really grateful."
Hipkins said Brookfield School was "already bursting at the seams".
"We know this area is growing really fast. We are trying to get ahead at that by getting those new classrooms in place," he said.
"Basically the new school will be built to roughly double the size of this school."
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Temporary classrooms will be put in place while the new school is built, which Hipkins said was expected to begin in about 18 months.
What will happen to the current site was not yet determined, Hipkins said.
"If there is another Crown use for it, then it could be used for that. It may still be needed for education. But that's not decided yet."
Bethlehem-based Te Wharekura o Mauao would be getting six new classrooms for 108 extra students.
Principal Heywood Kuka said he was excited by the news and the school had experienced "exponential growth" since it opened in 2010.
At that time it had about 30 students whereas next year its roll would be about 280.
"We use every single square inch of our kura. Without the resourcing or the classrooms, we would have had to turn a lot of them away."
Kuka said the school hoped to use the new classrooms to cater for growth as well as new technology spaces for all Māori medium schools in the area.
Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association president Matt Skilton said it was great the region was now seen as a growth area and he hoped the Government would continue to monitor that demand.
"It is a positive step forward for this area which has experienced a huge amount of growth in a short amount of time," he said.
Skilton said the next challenge will be to fill teaching roles at the new school.
"Kids need space, they will need teachers too. You can't have one or the other, you need both."
Labour list MP for Tauranga Jan Tinetti said the news was exciting for an area in which school rolls were "going through the roof".
Bay of Plenty Labour list MP Angie Warren-Clark said Brookfield School deserved a new school as it had been overcrowded for quite some time.
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