Tour E1 - Stonefields Primary School

Contact Details

Tour Departs at 1.15pm

Stonefields Primary School

81 Tihi Street, Mt Wellington 

Venue Overview

Stonefields School is a decile 9 school of years 1-8 and has about 212 pupils with a future capacity of about 650. The school was designed by Jasmax and opened in February 2011 at the epicentre of a recent housing development. Stage two will commence in May 2013. Stonefields School has a big emphasis on collaborative learning, and this is producing some startlingly enthusiastic students who speak very affectionately about their new learning hubs, their teachers and their own learning.

Collaborating was the essence of the vision and the design, spaces and opportunities had to be created for students and teachers to learn and teach in collaborative settings. The floor plan for the main block at Stonefields shows how "collaborating" was taken by the architect from being a vision to a reality. The clusters of teaching spaces are arranged within the building as learning hubs of approximately 90 students with three teachers in each and are planned around a shared awhina and two small break-out spaces.

The learning hubs also have wet areas, sinks and benches, copious display space for students' work, shelves and storage for tote trays of student work, indoor/outdoor opportunities, laptops and fixed computers and mobile furniture that can be arranged as students and teachers wish. These flexible learning areas are filled with natural light, ventilation is easily controlled with high and low level windows, walls and floors and ceilings all have acoustic linings.

As well as the learning hub spaces, the school incorporates a library, a multi-purpose hall and administration, staff and reception areas. The school planning is grouped around a central courtyard space that opens to the sun and turns its back on a very persistent and cold southerly wind. Large sliding doors open outside under wide verandahs. The landscape treatment picks up on the idea of the original basalt rock quarry with references to the site's earlier volcanic history.

This site visit is sponsored by Jacobsen

Site Visits

This page last updated: Tuesday 12 March 2013