NEW SCHOOL OPENED

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28413, 21 October 1957, Page 17

NEW SCHOOL OPENED

Cluster Plan At Freeville

“The day is not far distant when you will probably have a couple ' of prefabs here, with the increas- ' ing school rolls,” said Mr S. J. Irwin, chairman of the Canterbury i Education Board, opening the i new Freeville school in Sandy ' avenue, north New Brighton, on Saturday. Mr Irwin opened the school in the absence of the Minister of Education (Mr R. M. Algie). . The school had its first classes on February 4, when more than 260 children attended. The roll at present is 302, and the school is built for a maximum roll of 320. It is built in the modern cluster style, with two blocks of four classrooms each. One block also contains an administrative section, with offices, a library, staff room and storage rooms. There are about four acres of playing fields, which have been laid in grass. A concrete basketball court, and an area for younger children, have also been provided. Concrete Blocks The school is built throughout in concrete blocks, and has’ an automatically-stoked coal-fired heating system, which, according to the headmaster (Mr L. D. Daly), proved very efficient in the winter. The classrooms are large and airy, with big windows facing the sun. They are panelled in Rimu for part of the height of the walls, and the remainder and the ceilings are painted in pastel shades.

“In spite of the increased numbers of school children, we have not reached the stage of debarring children or of running shifts, as has had to be done overseas,” said Mr Irwin. The people of the area were seeing a return for their money, as the school had cost £33,130. “I hope the school will reach the status of a 12 or 13-room school in the near future, as with the expansion of the area more accommodation will be needed,” he said.

Mr Daly was presented with a portrait of the Queen and Prince Philip by the chairman of the school committee (Mr J. M. Lang). Geoffrey Ward, the first pupil to enrol at the school, raised the flag at the beginning of the ceremony.