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Tuesday June 27 2017
21
SECONDARY SCHOOL SELECTION
A bright future at Shirley and Avonside With a brand new state-of-the-art campus on their horizon and a host of new opportunities to offer students, it is a great time to enrol at Shirley Boys’ High School and Avonside Girls’ High School. The two schools will relocate to their new site, at QEII Park, in time for Term 2 of 2019, so students who enrol for next year will be at the new schools in their second year of high school. Being able to start from scratch has enabled the architects to create the ‘ultimate campus’. It features a large Performing Arts Centre (with a 750-seat and a 100-seat theatre), three full-sized gyms (complete with climbing wall), a cultural space and four sportsfields. Each school will also have a long list of its own specialist learning facilities, including: • Electronics Lab • Recording Studios • Editing Suites • 2D and 3D Printing Room • 6 Science Labs • An Indoor Fitness Centre Avonside Girls’ principal Sue Hume says the students will spend most of their day in a single sex environment. “That’s important to us. The research clearly shows that single sex education benefits both girls and boys...boys do better academically and girls participate more when they have space to learn and focus away from the opposite gender,” says Sue Hume. Shirley Boys’ High School headmaster
Avonside Girls’ principal Sue Hume and Shirley Boys’ High School headmaster John Laurenson
John Laurenson says being co-located will enable both schools to offer their students more. “We’ll be able to work together to deliver more specialist subjects so we can widen our curriculum and we will be able to co-operate on things like school productions. Obviously there will be lots of social and educational advantages to this.” A large bus network is being created to help make travelling to and from the campus easy, and the schools are also working with local authorities to create safe cycling and walking routes to the site. While the new zone hasn’t been finalised yet, the schools’ intake for next year will be based on their current zones. That is good news for any families considering out-of-zone enrolments. Much of the school’s existing zones now sit in the residential red zone so there is plenty of space.
KIWI SOUL GLOBAL VISION
SHIRLEY BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOL www.shirley.school.nz
ENROL YOUR SON NOW FOR 2018 Enrolments close at 4.00pm on Friday 28 July 2017
Avonside Girls’ HiGH scHool
enrol your dAuGHter for 2018 Closing date for 2018 enrolments is 4.00pm
fridAy 28 July 2017 Educating and empowering young women to be the best they can be. new school opening in term 2, 2019.
www.avonside.school.nz
PH: 03 389 7199