NEW SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 186, 8 August 1935, Page 8

NEW SCHOOL.

RICHMOND ROAD.

OPEN-AIR TYPE.

PREPARATION OF PLANS.

A grant was recently made available by the Education Department for the replacement of the existing Richmond Eoad school, and plans for a new building are now being prepared at the ofliec of the Auckland Education Board. No time is being lost on this work and it is anticipated that it will be possible to invite tenders for the erection of the new school in the near future.

Provision is being made for ten classrooms of the semi-open-air type, cloakroom, lavatory accommodation and common rooms for the headmaster and teaching stall. The buildings will be arranged round a quadrangle, which will serve as a junior playground. They will be erected between the existing building and the manual training centre and be nearer to Richmond Road. This has been made possible by the acquisition of two old residences which abutted on to the school .site, which is bounded on either side by Brown Street and Douglas Street. With the exception of the tower over the main entrance, the new school will be of a single storey only. The construction work will be done in timber and the roofing will be carried out in tiles. The manual training centre will be retained on its present site, while the existing buildings will not be demolished until the new work has been completed. The cleared area will then be prepared and used as a playing area for senior pupils.

When the new institution is opened it will be a credit to the district, and should serve the requirements of the pupils for many years. It will be modern in every way, well lighted and ventilated and roomy, the class-rooms ranging in size from 20ft by 21ft 6in to 22ft by 21ft 6in. The present school, with additions from time to time, has done service since 188S, and it is considered that it has now outlived its usefulness. The need for the establishment of a school in the .Richmond lioad district first became pressing in June, ISB3, when a petition signed by a number of residents suggested that facilities for the education of their children should be provided in a Primitive Methodist chapel near Cox's Creek. This building was available at a rental of a week. In August of that year the Auckland Education Board decided to open a school in the Richmond Road district, but it was not until the beginning of the following year that the school was opened in the Methodist chapel by Miss Connie Fletcher, assisted by Miss L. J. McElwain. Not many years elapsed before the need for a permanent school was recognised., but a suitable site was not available within the district. This difficulty was overcome, however, by the extension of the district and the present site of approximately half an acre was purchased in 1888 frofn Mr. E. L. McKinstry. The girls' high scifcol building in Queen Street was then moved on to the property, and the school was. transferred from the chapel to the new building, consisting of two rooms of 34ft by 20ft, and one room of 25ft by 20ft, on June 5, 1888. From that time the roll number has steadily increased and the building has been added to to keep pace with the growing needs of the district.