Paerata Primary School

Education

1 Jan

Located in the developing suburb of Paerata Rise, a short drive north of Pukekohe, Paerata School was tendered as a replacement to the existing, aging school nearby. The initial build caters for 370 students with master planning in place for envisioned expansion as the surrounding area continues to grow. Paerata shares a similar design with Tamaoho School in neighbouring Pukekohe, that was designed, documented, and constructed by the same team simultaneously as part of the same project.

The spatial framework for the overall design was the establishment of a central courtyard at the heart of each school, a Community Axis linking key activity nodes, and a strong civic presence to the main street frontage. The key requirement of the brief was to acknowledge that learners learn in different ways, providing versatile learning spaces that can evolve with tamarikis needs over time.

Location
Paerata Rise, Auckland

Date completed
2022

Client
Ministry of Education

Team
John Sofo

Photography
Mark Scowen

Awards

NZ Commercial Project Awards 2023 - Gold Award: Education
NZ Property Council - Excellence Award In Education Category 2022
NZ Commercial Property Awards 2022- Gold in Education

Paerata has a strong civic presence as you enter off Jonah Lomu Drive, with the Library and Administration building anchoring the school frontage at the main entrance. The Administration building also contains a large multipurpose hall with two sports courts, changing room facilities, a stage, and cafeteria. These facilities are arranged so they can be isolated for afterhours community events. As you enter past the admin buildings, a large canopy covers the generous walkway which connects the rest of the school to the community axis running north-south, then ending at the field.

The two-story Teaching block with its innovative learning environments, opens out to the central courtyard and is aligned to this axis, strengthening the design principal of student integration and collaboration. The teaching block has extensive glazing which opens out to the central courtyard for play and outdoor learning, while also providing passive surveillance.

Innovative learning spaces are adaptable and flexible and intended to be reconfigurable internally to suit the pedagogical needs of the school. This outcome is achieved by a simple square grid in a double storey configuration. Flexible learning spaces are surrounded by large, medium, and small breakout areas and toilets. A shared creative maker space grounds the two flexible learning spaces together and offers an outlet for students to experiment with messy projects such as cooking and science projects.

These fluid environments are designed to provide multiple educational methods to encourage and foster openness, collaboration, and connectivity in all aspects of school life. Diversity in learning is likely to increase over time as education keeps pace with changes taking place in Aotearoa and Innovative learning environments are designed to provide that flexibility.