The Northern Express Herald

Saint Kentigern private school takes shrink wrap off first section of towering classroom block

Saint Kentigern College’s massive new Auckland senior student block has been partially unwrapped, revealing the scale of one of New Zealand’s most ambitious and expensive school expansions.

Construction of the 42-classroom Pakūranga building – tipped to cost tens of millions of dollars – remained on track for use from Term 1 next year, the school said.

It posted pictures showing the block’s imposing red-brick facade rising above nearby Pakūranga homes and peeking out from protective shrink wrap that was peeled back on the first completed section.

The block will include a 450-capacity auditorium standing three storeys high. It is part of a master-planned redevelopment at Saint Kentigern’s two Auckland campuses and follows an earlier $61 million revamp and the new Saint Kentigern Girls’ School at its Remuera site.

It also comes on top of the school’s $3.7m purchase of a 413ha waterfront farm in Coromandel in July last year.

For families this year paying $28,422 in senior tuition and a $1500 contribution levy, the reveal gives a first chance to see the building taking shape.

“The newly revealed section provides the first clear view of the building’s exterior finish and architectural form,” the school said in a recent update.

Many of the country’s biggest private schools have embarked on new building projects and now almost universally charge levies on families to help pay the costs.

They argue impressive facilities help them stay competitive in the race for the best teachers and students.

Parents are getting their first look at Saint Kentigern's towering new 42-classroom senior student block as it rises above Pakūranga in Auckland.

A recent Herald analysis found Saint Kentigern’s four-school network – composed of a co-ed senior college, a boys’ and girls’ primary and a preschool – made it one of the nation’s largest schools.

It paid its top six executives an average of $370,995 each annually – well above the next-best-paid private school executives on the list at Dilworth on an average $320,750, according to financial reports lodged with the Charities Register.

St Kentigern said the new Year 12 and 13 block was being built in three phases.

Saint Kentigern College earlier showed photos of the steel framing for the Pakūranga building rising from the ground.

With the first section out from under the shrink wrap, work was underway on the exteriors of the other sections.

Earlier photos had showed a bare steel skeleton as the first structures rose from the ground.

The rest of the shrink wrap was expected to be removed in the coming months, with the project still slated to be on track for completion this November ahead of a Term 1, 2027 opening.

Work will also move inside the building on joinery and the completion of the centre-piece forum and its soaring skylight.

‘Village square’ design to produce ‘young people of character’

The new building replaces what had been the Wingate block and Goodfellow Centre, including the school’s library, after demolition took place in the second half of 2024.

Saint Kentigern College principal Damon Emtage previously said the facility aimed to offer a personalised, individual-focused education to create “young people of character”.

The building itself was based on a “village square” design concept.

The school earlier undertook renovations and upgrades on its chapel.

“In this concept, there are dynamic breakout spaces, social areas, and ‘me’, ‘we’ and ‘us’ spaces,” Emtage said.

“Me” spaces were designed to be informal meeting and study areas for small student groups, “we” spaces would accommodate medium-sized groups, and “us” spaces included the forum and large meeting rooms where whole classes and house groups could convene.

Once constructed, the amphitheatre forum would also be opened to outside groups, such as school alumni and support and advocacy organisations.

‘Trophy’ campus on Coromandel

The Pakūranga redevelopment is part of a broader master plan confirmed by the Saint Kentigern Trust Board in 2018.

Staff, students and consultants discuss the school's master-planned redevelopment.

That earlier focused on redevelopment at the Shore Rd campus for junior students in Remuera.

It included the new purpose-built girls’ school, new facilities at the boys’ school, a new specialist Arts, Science and Technology block available to both primary schools, and a new preschool.

Earlier, the Pakūranga campus had its Chapel of Saint Kentigern renovated and updated.

Saint Kentigern's Wilson Bay Farm should give students the chance to study ecosystems and potentially prepare for careers in agriculture.

The school also spent $3.7m with help from its alumni recently buying Wilson Bay Farm on the Coromandel waterfront.

Described as a “coastal trophy farm” by real estate advertisements, the farm is envisioned by the school as a third campus, where students from Year 4 to Year 13 can travel annually once opened for students in 2027.

That would enable students to undertake scientific studies and explore agricultural careers on the working farm.