With a growing roll and with an eye to the best use of the school site the Matangi School Board of Trustees have spent the few years planning a classroom build on the land adjacent to St David’s Church.

Community members are invited to attend the Matangi School Bespoke Build Blessing Monday 13 November 2023, 7.00 a.m.

“We warmly invite you to join us and members of the Te Iti o Haua Marae to bless the buildings and land which are part of this project.

Please gather at the front of the Hall. This special occasion will be finished by 7.30am and there will be a cup of tea available afterwards.”

“Matangi School Bespoke Build Update

Construction of our new classrooms is finally ready to start, the plans are in, the contractors have been confirmed and we are ready to turn soil.

From the 13^th of November we will start to see a lot more activity round the school. As part of this the areas around the hall and the relocatable classrooms are going to be fenced off. We ask you all to please stay away from, and out of the fenced areas.

We have a robust Health and Safety plan for the new build and the contractors will be entering the fenced areas from either the reserve or the Church land. The fenced areas will be controlled by the lead contractor Construct Ltd. The plan means there will be very minimal crossover between students and contractors.

Can we please make sure that the areas in front of the school vehicle reserve gates and the area in front of the church gates are kept free of vehicles at all times during the build.

Over the Christmas break the hall will be moved to the area where the current relocatable classrooms are positioned. The plan is to have this operational by mid-March. Once completed it will revert to a teaching space until the completion of the new classrooms. Moving the hall to this location allows it to be used for sports events, Ag days, Country show days and connects it better to the rest of the school. It will still be utilised by playgroup and we hope that its new home will create better use of it for the school and the community.

Sadly we are going to lose the established native trees between the hall and the church. We have a planting plan in place to establish more trees than we are removing. By building here and losing these trees we will be preserving our fields and greenspaces for generations to come and allows us to create long term infrastructure plans for the whole school. We are looking to repurpose any of the native timber that we can, into the bush school area behind the pool.

We do not anticipate that the build will affect the daily operation of the school although there may be a bit of shuffling early next year as we manage the teaching spaces until the hall is available for use again.

If you have any questions, queries, or concerns about the upcoming works please let me know.

Thanks

Bernard Butler and Matangi School Board

principal@matangi.school.nz  “