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DEVELOPMENT » Pakuranga College Gymnasium
October 2016
Business North
New gymnasium set for Pakuranga Kelly Deeks Pakuranga College is creating a pathway towards healthy, happy, and active lives with the build of a new, self-funded, multi-sport gymnasium, filling three main areas of need for its students and the local community. Pakuranga College principal Michael Williams identified the need for a new gymnasium when he started at the school seven years ago. Physical education is a large part of the school’s main curriculum, but its old gymnasium was too small. “The programme was suffering in terms of the quality and breadth of what we could offer,” he says. Also part of the school’s core business is a large co-curricular programme, a big part of which is basketball, and with the too-small gym, some basketball teams were unable to get a training slot. The community focused school has several partnerships with community groups who use its facilities, and these groups were also crying out for more space. “There is a huge need in the community, and we know it’s important to keep these relationships in place,” Michael says. “We’ve got our own heated swimming pool which is used by the local swim club after hours, and it’s because of this we can have a heated swimming pool. “We have partnerships with all the major sports groups in the area. The biggest driver for us was our curriculum, with the other two being really important.” With the government promoting its ‘active kids’ programme, Pakuranga College approached the Ministry of Education for assistance in providing the facilities and resources to facilitate this. “They acknowledged we were deficient in this area, but refused to provide us any funding to get it done,” he says.
Building of the new gymnasium at Pakuranga Collge began a year ago and it is set to open on October 26. “So we decided to do it ourselves. We’ve been frantically saving for the past few years and we finally raised enough money to get it going. “There are still things we want to add to it, but we thought let’s get the structure in place and then do the rest as time and resources allow.” The local community has been supportive, but
Michael says it is not overly flush and the school hasn’t been swamped with donations. Without the money it makes from its international students, the project wouldn’t have happened. Building of the new gymnasium began a year ago and it is set to open on October 26. The 2200 school kids and those local community groups will then be able to enjoy a 1600sqm multi-use facility. The gymnasium development includes two full sized basketball courts with fully sprung hardwood floor and electronic scoreboard, built in audio visual equipment and customised acoustics to facilitate auditorium use, fixed and mobile bleacher seating, four changing rooms with showers and toilets,
staff offices, equipment storage as well as three flexible classroom spaces which can be opened up to create a large function room, with an attached covered terrace with views across the school playing field. Michael is not yet finished in his mission to improve Pakuranga College, and still has the list he made seven years ago after asking school staff and the community what the issues and problems were with the school. He has one of the best grass rugby and football fields in the city after initiating an extensive drainage and irrigation programme over the past four years, and next in his sights is how to think smarter about the use of the 50-year old school’s buildings.
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The gymnasium development includes two full sized basketball courts with fully sprung hardwood floor and electronic scoreboard.
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