New teaching space funding

• Planning your new teaching space
• Funding services for new teaching space projects
• Building a new teaching space
• Returning unspent new teaching space funding

Planning your new teaching space

If your school qualifies for new teaching space funding, you may be able to choose whether you want general or specialist teaching space, or gym space. Depending on what you need to build, we will tell you how much you have to spend. We will pay out the money as you do the work.

We use the teaching space template to work out entitlement. The template works out whether your school has a teaching space deficiency by comparing the current number of teaching spaces with your school's entitlement. The template includes the business rules with details about the deficiency calculation. The total roll is the projected peak roll up to 18 months ahead (use March rolls for Secondary and Intermediate Schools, and October rolls for Primary and Area Schools).

Type and size of space you can build

A teaching space is any space greater than 40m2 net area that is used for teaching purposes. Net area is the usable area within a room excluding corridors, reception areas, cleaners’ cupboards, toilets, switch rooms and network spaces.

Teaching space includes:

• regular teaching spaces like classrooms, breakout spaces, learning corridors
• specialist teaching spaces – these are rooms where specialist teaching occurs such as technology rooms and performing arts spaces
• gymnasiums.

If you qualify for a new teaching space, the size of the space depends on your school type and the type of space. See the following table for teaching space sizes.

Teaching space sizes depending on school and type

All specialist teaching spaces are funded at the same rate, although technology rooms at secondary schools get a higher furniture and equipment rate .

You can decide the best mix of regular and specialist spaces to suit your school’s needs. As a guide, around 40% of a secondary school’s total teaching space should be specialist teaching space. If you would like a new specialist teaching space, and this would mean your school would have more than 40% specialist space, you will need to tell us why before we approve the funding. The following conditions apply to new teaching space funding:

• You cannot build a smaller teaching space than you are funded for; the previous policy which allowed you to build a smaller space and record the difference as accommodation in lieu (AiL) is no longer available.
• If you build a space bigger than you are entitled to under the SPG, you will not get 5 Year Agreement (5YA) funding for that extra space. 5YA funding is capped at your SPG entitlement.
• In your funding application, you must clearly state how any specialist teaching space will be used.

Specialist teaching spaces

Specialist teaching spaces include:

• audio visual
• clothing
• drama
• graphic
• metalwork/hard materials
• woodwork/soft materials
• food technology
• specialist laboratories.

Technology teaching spaces

Technology teaching spaces are a type of specialist teaching space. They are only provided for Year 7 and 8 students at full primary or intermediate schools. They are used to teach curriculum areas like food technology, and hard or soft materials. To be entitled to build technology teaching space, you must also be a ‘provider’ school for Year 7 and 8 students at other schools in your area.

If you want to apply for your school to become a technology provider for other schools, please see below for contact details.

For all school resourcing queries:
Email: resourcing@education.govt.nzresourcing@education.govt.nz
Phone: +64 4 463 8383

Gymnasiums

The teaching space template will tell you if your school has less gym space than it is entitled to based on your school's roll.

Not every school is entitled to a gym. You must meet the following conditions before we will approve funding for a gym:

• We only approve funding to build a gym at schools with Year 9 to 13 students.
• You need up to a minimum number of students in Years 9 to 13 before you qualify for gym space. Until you qualify, you must use your multi-purpose area to deliver the physical education curriculum.
• The standard entitlement for a gym is 300m2. However, when you first meet the minimum number of students, you are allowed a gym with a net area of 540m2 (the size of an international basketball court and an additional 120m2 for specialist space and changing rooms).
• You will be entitled to more gym space at certain points as your roll increases, that is, each time you have a 0.5m2 gym space deficiency of 150m2.
• We include all gym space when working out your existing gym space, including that owned by the community and by the board.
• You must use the funding to build gym areas; you cannot use it to build other types of teaching spaces.

School areas not covered by new teaching space funding

You cannot use your new teaching space funding to build non-teaching spaces such as:

• administration areas
• resource rooms
• libraries
• the staffroom.

The SPG funding programme addresses shortfalls in non-teaching spaces.

Funding services for new teaching space projects

We will consider giving you extra funding to increase the capacity of your school’s services, if you need it.

For example, if you build a new classroom, you might need a new electricity transformer to cope with the additional load on your electricity supply. We may increase the project budget to meet that cost. However, you must pay for the new room’s electricity connection and wiring from the project budget.

Building a new teaching space

Once we have approved your new teaching space funding you have a year to send us your project management forms to confirm that the project is underway. If we do not receive your project forms within this time, we will withdraw the funding. The only exception is if you ask for special approval to delay the project for longer than a year.

In managing the project, you must:

• meet all of the Ministry’s project management requirements
• cover all project costs, including site works and services, in the budget
• make sure the project complies with the Ministry’s design standards .

Returning unspent new teaching space funding

If you do not need all of your allocated budget to complete your new teaching space project, you must return the surplus funding to us. We can then:

• accurately record the project’s actual cost in the Property Management Information System (PMIS)
• return the funds to the national roll growth budget.