News

200 new classrooms coming to Auckland: do we have enough teachers?

<h2>Hot on the heels of a brand new agreement to boost teacher pay and wellbeing&comma; the government has announced a &dollar;1&period;2 billion injection to build new schools and classrooms around the country&period; Here&&num;8217&semi;s the announcement&colon;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Commitment to build new schools and classrooms for up to 100&comma;000 children by 2030<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Initial funding of &dollar;1&period;2 billion over 4 years the largest ever outlay on school property<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>A new primary school and 200 new classrooms in Auckland announced <&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>For the first time ever the Government has committed to a long-term plan that will see brand new schools and classrooms built&comma; to meet demand for around 100&comma;000 extra student places for children entering schools over the next 10 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The country’s first ever National Education Growth Plan &lpar;NEGP&rpar; identifies where new schools may need to be built or additional classrooms are needed at current schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Government has also released specific Growth Plans for Auckland and Tai Tokerau today&comma; which includes funding for a new primary school in Auckland&comma; and more than 200 new classrooms and 24 additional special education satellite units across the two regions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins made the announcement today during a visit to Hingaia Peninsula School&comma; in south west Auckland&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ensuring all our children learn in smart new classrooms is critical to their learning success&period; We are seeing too many kids getting taught in cold school halls and prefabs and our plan will turn that around&comma;” Jacinda Ardern said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This Government inherited a decade of neglect which has seen funding for building classrooms falling behind the growth in students&period; Our plan both catches up and brings the building of new classrooms in line with future roll growth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This plan sits alongside the largest ever single investment in school property in New Zealand history&period; The &dollar;1&period;2 billion in guaranteed funding for new classrooms gives certainty to schools&comma; parents&comma; and the construction sector&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s important we plan ahead for growth so parents can be confident that they can send their child to their local school&comma; and that their local school will have enough warm&comma; dry and modern classrooms to learn in&comma; something the previous Government failed to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our investment in schools is yet another way the Government’s making progress to make sure that New Zealand is the best place in the world to be a child&comma;” Jacinda Ardern said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our national plan includes individualised Growth Plans for regions with the highest forecast student population growth&period; It enables us to take a strategic approach across the whole country and within each region&comma; instead of having to react to population issues school by school&comma;” Chris Hipkins said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span lang&equals;"EN-AU" >&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are already experiencing unprecedented growth in the number of school-aged children in parts of the country&period;  This is expected to continue and even increase in some areas over the next decade&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span lang&equals;"EN-AU" >&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We know this puts a strain on school space and resources&period; We are committed to not just delivering more student places&comma; but ensuring we deliver those places where they are most needed&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><span lang&equals;"EN-AU" >&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Growth Plans show that we need to provide for more than 60&comma;000 new student places by 2030 in Auckland and Tai Tokerau&comma;” Chris Hipkins said&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span lang&equals;"EN-AU" >Of the &dollar;1&period;2 billion of funding for school property in the Wellbeing Budget&comma; <&sol;span>the investments announced today represent about &dollar;200 million of that funding&period; This includes&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Auckland<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>&dollar;20m for the construction of a new primary school in Milldale&comma; Wainui – 370 additional student places<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>&dollar;155m for 228 roll growth classrooms in 42 schools across Auckland – around 4&comma;700 additional student places<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>&dollar;5m for the expansion of Hingaia Peninsula Primary School – 250 additional student places<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Tai <strong>Tokerau<&sol;strong>    <&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Around &dollar;20m for 27 roll growth classrooms in 9 schools across Tai Tokerau – over 500 additional student places<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p><span lang&equals;"EN-AU" >Further announcements about investment in school property&comma; including the release of Growth Plans for other regions&comma; will be made in the coming weeks&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><strong><span lang&equals;"EN-AU" >Planning links&colon;<&sol;span><&sol;strong><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li><em>Auckland and Tai Tokerau Growth Plans can be found <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;assets&sol;Documents&sol;Ministry&sol;Budgets&sol;Budget2019&sol;NEGP&sol;AucklandTaiTokerauplans&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">here&period;<&sol;a> <&sol;em> <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><em>Building a School Factsheet can be found <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;assets&sol;Documents&sol;Ministry&sol;Budgets&sol;Budget2019&sol;NEGP&sol;Building-a-School&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><em>National Education Growth Plan factsheet is <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;assets&sol;Documents&sol;Ministry&sol;Budgets&sol;Budget2019&sol;NEGP&sol;NEGP-InfoSheet-National&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">here<&sol;a>&period; <&sol;em> <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><em>The Auckland Growth Plan factsheet is <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;assets&sol;Documents&sol;Ministry&sol;Budgets&sol;Budget2019&sol;NEGP&sol;NEGP-InfoSheet-Auckland&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">here&period;<&sol;a><&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><em>List of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;assets&sol;Documents&sol;Ministry&sol;Budgets&sol;Budget2019&sol;NEGP&sol;roll-growth-schoolslist&period;docx" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">schools<&sol;a> receiving funding in today’s announcement&period;<&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><em>Here is the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;education&period;govt&period;nz&sol;assets&sol;Documents&sol;Ministry&sol;Budgets&sol;Budget2019&sol;NEGP&sol;NEGP-CabPaper&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Cabinet Paper<&sol;a> for the National Education Growth Plan to 2030&period; <&sol;em><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;

Explore our latest issue...
School News

School News is not affiliated with any government agency, body or political party. We are an independently owned, family-operated magazine.

Recent Posts

Curriculum rewrites lack clear frameworks and definitions

Curriculum rewrites at the Ministry of Education are struggling with a lack of clarity, according…

5 days ago

Chisnallwood Intermediate: A place of opportunity

Opportunities are critical for preteens to build confidence and capability, says Chisnallwood Intermediate, acclaimed for…

5 days ago

Are AI detection tools biased against English language learners?

AI detection tools are trained on native English users, which could create bias.

5 days ago

Wrong room, wrong focus

Opinion: Why the Minister’s announcement on open-plan classrooms distracts from what really matters in education.

5 days ago

From Stress to success: Supporting teacher and student wellbeing

Positive wellbeing means resilient communities and effective learning.

5 days ago

New campaign aims to lift the mana of teachers

A new campaign from the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand aims to lift the…

2 weeks ago