Use of schools by the community

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33066, 6 November 1972, Page 18

Use of schools by the community

Future New Zealand schools should be designed so that certain areas can be made available for community use, the executive of the New Zealand School Committees’ Federation suggested in Christchurch on Saturday.

Increasing emphasis was being given throughout New Zealand to the role which schools must play in their particular community, and as a large investment of Government funds was represented by school buildings and grounds, it was fitting that planners consider carefully the access which the community might have to such facilities.

the planning of the new intermediate school to be built at Ponsonby, Auckland. The future would see a development of more of this type of approach but planning must begin for it now. Referring to the development in New Zealand of the “open-classroom" approach to primary-school buildings, the federation’s executive expressed concern that not enough public understanding of this new concept was evident “The public must be told what the new plan entails to avoid suspicion and resistance to change on the part of parents,” said Mr W. J. Alcock (Palmerston North). The executive decided to ask the Department of Education to give wide publicity to the open-classroom type of primary school in an endeavour to establish a better liaison between the planners and those who must use the results of the planning. It was not considered sufficient merely to rely on the results of overseas information on the new concept—the public must be told how it was expected to fit into the New Zealand context.

The executive noted support for the principle of community use embodied in