In the heart of Alexandra Primary School is a beautiful new whare that incorporates a variety of learning spaces for the 210 ākonga (students) and teachers.

Opened on May 13, the multi-purpose learning environment named Hinerakimārie features a school hall, library, kitchen, laundry and bathroom facilities.

The school has been undergoing a complete rebuild by the Ministry of Education (MoE) over the past few years.

The rebuild began with a new staff room and office block about 13 years ago, and has included four relocated classrooms for years 4,5,7 and 8, the whare and now an eight-space teaching block due to open in early 2026.

The whare was designed using the Dunstan Kāhui Ako cultural narrative, and students can watch the final stage of the rebuild out of the school hall windows inside “like live television”, principal Fi Mackley said.

Christchurch-based BCN Architects was involved with the design of the whare and it was built by Breen Construction, replacing the old school onsite.  

Some of the old classrooms demolished were from the 1950s and 1970s.

Fi has taught at Alexandra Primary School since 2010 and moved into the tumuaki (principal) role at the end of 2020.

She said the whare had already been used for some very special events such as the Matariki breakfast and the Tī Kōuka classroom’s cultural celebration.

“The whare is a significant part of our school now, we see it as being the ngākau - the ‘heart’ of the school,” she said.

Once the temporary classroom onsite was removed near the entrance, the new whare would be much more visible to the rest of the community.

It has been a long process for the school and board (including previous boards), with MoE initially pausing all of the new rebuilds two years ago.

The school has had to be “super flexible” with its existing learning spaces to accommodate the junior block being removed, including the upstairs staffroom currently being used as a classroom.

Fi said Breen Construction had been outstanding and supportive with the delays and it was also nice that at least three of the school dads were involved in the project - including the site manager and foreman. 

She said they put forward a strong case to the MoE about why they needed to build the whare first: Up until now school assemblies were held outside winter and summer, and they’d had no school library since about 2012.

They have received many donations of books from families, PaperPlus, Beca and Checketts McKay, as well as boxes of reading material from the National Library.

National Library facilitator Bridget Schaumann of Dunedin had been instrumental in bringing the school’s new library vision to life, Fi said.

“It is an exciting time for our school and its community. Our new buildings will help to embed our school’s vision of deep learning in a safe and diverse environment where everyone belongs.”

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