120 | COMMUNITY Blomfield Special School & Arco Group Improving access for special needs education The new three-classroom facility at Awanui Primary School will cater for around 24 students. T T Karen Phelps Families across Northland who have been waiting years to get their children with special needs into school are set to benefit from a wave of new purpose-built satellite classrooms being constructed under the banner of Blomfield Special School. The Whangarei-based school, whose mission is to provide an appropriate, quality education that recognises both the universal and special needs of its students, is currently overseeing three Ministry of Education-funded building projects across the region with the first due to open as soon as Term 4 this year. Blomfield Special School Deputy Principal Karen van Beek says the investment is long overdue. “It’s lovely to know the Ministry of Education is investing in a purpose-built facility for these students,” says Karen. “It will mean students who are sitting at home or stuck in early childhood or playgroups beyond their age will be able to come to school. Parents keep ringing us to find out when we are opening.” One significant project is a new satellite classroom being constructed at Bay of Islands College in Kawakawa, built by Northland contractor Arco Group. The facility will cater for eight to ten students per class and has been designed with specific accessibility requirements in mind including universal bathrooms, ramps, hoists for wheelchair users, covered vehicle dropoff areas, and additional staff carparking to reflect the school’s high staff-to-student ratios. Breakout spaces for emotional regulation are also incorporated into the design. Karen says the build addresses a critical gap in provision. Currently students attending Oromahoe School’s satellite, which caters for children up to the ages of 13 or 14, have had nowhere local to progress to, with some being bussed all the way to Whangarei. The new Bay of Islands College satellite will provide that next step, with Oromahoe’s freed-up classroom space then available for new entrants who are currently waiting at home. The Bay of Islands project is modelled heavily on a previously completed build at Te Kamo High School. A second project is under way at Awanui Primary School, just north of Kaitaia, where two existing prefab classrooms at Kaitaia Primary School have not been purpose-suited to special needs students. The new three-classroom facility, also built by Arco Group using a repeatable design for cost efficiency, will cater for around 24 students and will feature the same accessibility and wellbeing provisions as the Bay of Islands build. “Arco has been very professional,” says Karen. “They built our central campus building about 12 years ago so we already have a relationship with them, and it’s been great to have local builders doing these projects for us with help from Kiwi subcontractors such as George Grant Engineering.” A third project, comprising two classrooms at Selwyn Park Primary School in Dargaville, is currently at building consent stage. “The Ministry of Education has been very supportive at getting these projects over the line. Having the same project team, and the consistency that brings, across all three projects has been really useful,” she says. Blomfield Special School operates its central campus in Whangarei, with nine classrooms and its administration, specialist and leadership team based there. It currently runs six satellite units with 13 classrooms across Whangarei and the mid and far north in mainstream host schools. GGE proudly supports Blomfield Special School & Arco Group, working together to build stronger, safer, and more efficient structures across New Zealand
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