SYDENHAM TO HAVE NEW SCHOOLROOMS

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 145, 20 June 1931, Page 9

SYDENHAM TO HAVE NEW SCHOOLROOMS

OPEN-AIR BUILDINGS WILL BE CONSTRUCTED.

Cabinet has approved of a grant for the erection of five wooden open-air class-rooms at the Sydenham school. The work has been placed first on the schedule of works by the Education Department and work will be put in hand at an early date. This ends the agitation for a new school which has been going on for eight or nine years. Advice to this effect was received this morning by Mr H. T. Armstrong, M.P., from the Minister of Education (the Hon 11. Atmorc).

The necessary out-office accommodation, shelter-sheds and asphalting will also be provided. “ This will be a boon for Sydenham,” said Mr Armstrong. “ The pupils of the school will have a welcome change from the worm-eaten old building that they have had to put up with for so long. The old building, which is to be pulled down, is over sixty years of age. The congestion will be relieved and the pupils will work under infinitely better conditions. The Junior High School it is proposed to build in Milne Street will be a further'relief to the school. The Sydenham School is the largest primary school in New Zealand on the attendance figures.” The chairman of the Sydenham School committee (Mr G. J. Brown) said that the average roll number was 880. “ The building which is to come down is the old wooden one fronting Brougham Street, with the bell tower, and the new rooms will extend along this frontage in a box shape. The new classrooms will provide ample accommodation for all the children. It puts all our worries at an end. It is the intention of the committee before the old building is pulled down to hold an afternoon for the old ptfpils, many of whom have expressed a desire to see through it again and meet their old friends. Old pupils will be invited and the function will take place on a Saturday afternoon.”