Lepperton School and Community Hall Redevelopment

At Lepperton School our mission is to 'Empower lifelong learners' by building a collaborative school community through positive relationship learning to learn' together.

The new school building design provides flexible learning spaces which allow our teachers and learners to connect; learn and interact in a variety of ways (large groups, small groups, whole hub or one on one). The design of each learning hub provides our teachers the adaptability to cater for a variety of diverse student's learning needs.

The new school building designs allows students to learn at their own pace and in their own style and recognises that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to learning. The building design benefits both learners and teachers by allowing them the opportunities to work collaboratively and learn from each other.

The project includes a new playground and outdoor sports court and is unique in our region as it incorporates a combined indoor school and community hall.

The new facilities for the community offer a wide range of uses from sports, to meetings and functions. It has allowed the school to strengthen the relationship between our local community and iwi. During the planning and design phrases we (Murray Roberston, School BOT and Community Hall Society) were able to survey and gather ideas, voice, opinions and thoughts on how the school and hall could best meet the needs of our children and the wider community.

At each stage of the project Murray Robertson worked closely alongside the Board of Trustees' Lepperton School Senior Leadership team and Community Hall society. During the planning, design and construction phrases he was extremely flexible and adaptive to the needs of the school and community. As our architect Murray embraced the building project because of its significance to the school and wider community. He used his in depth knowledge of school design to engage our needs and adapted our suggestions to meet the specific needs of our learners and community.

A specific challenge during the project was designing and creating great acoustics for the learning hub environment.

Our learning hubs can have up to 75 students and 5 adults. This was a major element of the design process the leadership team and teachers needed to be effective. Murray met and talked to our teaching staff about the options available and the design of the learning hub. As a teaching Staff, Murray listened to our ideas and opinions; and created flexible learning environments that allowed for the best learning outcomes for our students. He created breakout spaces, grandstand areas, partitions, ceiling design, glass, wall covering that all combine to provide an excellent acoustic environment that promotes learning.

We believe the building design enables our teachers to deliver a competency based curriculum, catering for our diverse learners. We have seen improved learner engagement, increased in learning outcomes, greater learning progress and ownership of learning during our first year.             

Architect: Robertson Architects