Glendowie College Development Trust

 

 

New Glendowie College Gymnasium

Friday 23 April was a day of celebration at Glendowie College with the opening of a new gymnasium. The day began with a dawn blessing ceremony led by Kaumatua Hemi Pene from the Ruapotaka marae, Glen Innes and concluded with an opening ceremony attended by all the students of the college, staff and invited guests.

Mr Allan Peachey, MP for Tamaki, unveiled the plaque and officially opened the building. He told students how fortunate they were to have such an outstanding facility and acknowledged the effort that had gone into making such a building possible.

The new gymnasium has been an ongoing project at the college for ten years. Although the Ministry of Education provided a significant portion of the funding, the gym would not have been possible without the generosity of the local parent and business community. The college would like to acknowledge the families, the past students and the businesses who have supported the building project through their donations and support of the many fundraising events.

Commenting on the value of the new gymnasium, Ms Louise Moore, principal, said that the benefits of physical and recreational activities go much further than competitive sport or simply gaining a skill, "It is also about building positive attitudes and values, enhancing relationships and building healthy communities." Ms Moore said she hoped the new facility will provide "current and future students the opportunity to participate in school-based and co-curricular sporting activities that will see them continue with healthy lifestyles beyond school."

Facts about the new gymnasium:

• The gym is built on piles rather than a concrete base because the land is classified by the Council as a flood plain.
• The size is 692 square metres
• The walls are pre-cast concrete slabs
• The floor is a sprung base with a top surface of ash timber from England. We are the first school in NZ to have such a floor.
• At the rear of the building are four large water tanks designed to hold storm water runoff from the roof and feed the water slowly into the public storm water system. The four tanks can hold a total of 100,000 Litres of water and may be useful if there is ever a civil emergency.