A religious trust has bought a large block of land in Snells Beach and plans to build a school which could eventually cater for 600 students.
The Kingsway Trust owns eight schools throughout New Zealand, including KingsWay School in Orewa, and purchased Mahurangi Christian School earlier this year. The school was renamed as Horizon School this month.
In September, the trust bought the Lifeway Campus, adjacent to the Christian school, and plans to expand the school to include secondary students.
Trust chair Vaughan Darby says the new 11-hectare site is nearly 10 times the size of the existing school and could accommodate hundreds of students.
The plans have come after a Ministry of Education report estimated there would be an extra 3500 students in Mahurangi by 2030.
The trust purchased the land in anticipation of rapid growth, Mr Darby says.
“We believe we need to invest in land now. We see increasing demand and we want to be prepared for it,” he says.
The state integrated school currently has 65 students from Year 1 to 8, and has a capacity of 140 students. Its roll has nearly doubled in the past two years after reaching a low of 39 students in 2013.
Mr Darby says the trust has acquired about $10 million worth of assets in Snells Beach this year and plans to spend significantly more as the school grows.
It is currently developing a 20-year vision for the school.
“Basically, we’ll be building a new school and the size will depend on demand.”
By contrast, the Ministry has no plans to purchase land for schools in the near future, despite principals at both Warkworth School and Mahurangi College claiming they will reach capacity in the next 15 years.
Horizon School is now lodging an application to include Year 9 to 13 students.
“It’s only a matter of time before we go to secondary. This is likely to happen when we have about 25 students at Year 8 level,” Mr Darby says.
School principal and Kingsway trustee Helen Pearson says the school is re-branding to be more open and inclusive.
The investment comes on the back of a growth period for the trust. It has just built a primary school with a capacity of 600 students in Silverdale and has lodged an application to build a primary school in Henderson for 400 students.
“There has been a lot of demand for state integrated schools as they tend to have higher achievement levels than state schools,” Mr Darby says.
The Lifeway Campus was put on the market earlier this year as the courses have been phased out and moved to Edenz College in Auckland. The final animation students will finish at the end of the year.
The land was nearly snapped up by developers who planned to subdivide the site, before an agreement was reached between Life Church and Kingsway Trust.
Huhu Studios is the largest entity on the site and will lease the buildings from the trust.
A second trust has been set up to manage the campus, which will include Huhu lead producer and Horizon School board chair David Townsend and Trevor Yaxley, who founded the studio and the campus.
Mr Townsend says the changes are “exciting and mutually beneficial”.
The studio has 30 staff but that could expand to 100 after the company signed a deal to produce 17 films over the next eight years.
“Huhu expects to expand into existing buildings and will possibly build another studio on site.”
Lifeway Campus was founded by Trevor and Jan Yaxley in 1988 and had a range of courses in film and media and Christian ministry courses. The ownership of the buildings and land were transferred to Life Church seven years ago and reached a peak of about 150 students.
