Stonefields School - Stage 2

A new School situated on newly developed land in the footprint of quarried Mt Wellington, the second development of this primary school served to expand its capacity to almost three times that of its previous size.

The school was designed and delivered in two stages with the second, a single storey 1500m2 building, completed in 2014. Teaching spaces are grouped around a sheltered, central courtyard. Internally, the school features open hub learning spaces; library and multi-purpose hall, administration, staff and reception area. The school is the first of the recent new primary schools to fully adopt the open plan learning approach and also the first Primary School to achieve a NZGBC 5 Green Star rating for Education Design.

With the success of stage one, there was enthusiasm to complete the second stage – where the Stonefields Board of Trustees wanted the modern learning environment concept pushed to another level. The single level building incorporates interconnecting, informal, generous and highly visible open plan hubs. The school is open to the community and to the introduction of social and new media.

Stonefields Principal Sarah Martin and the Establishment Board of Trustees wanted to create a school where learning could take place in an open, social and authentic way. A true collaborative approach was taken to ensure parents, pupils and teachers elicited their feedback on the successes of the first stage, to inform the design of this second building she comments:

“Ultimately the new learning hubs that opened in early 2014 are a real reflection of this dialogue and evolution. Consequently there is a big sense of ownership in the school community, a real congruence between learning environments and the school’s vision and beliefs about ‘what learning and teaching looks like here’, and a real opportunity to further explore ‘what might be possible?’”

Stonefields School meets the Ministry of Educations Designing Quality Learning Spaces (DQLS) standards. Learning areas are filled with natural light, ventilation is easily controlled with high and low level windows, walls and floors and ceilings all have acoustic linings, and each space has a built in sound field system.