Queen Margaret College to build new student hostel   23 Aug 2016

Queen Margaret College to build new student hostel.

Wellington’s leading independent girls’ school has announced exciting new plans for students living outside of the capital city.

Queen Margaret College will be offering student accommodation after recently unveiling plans to open an onsite student hostel at the beginning of 2018 for Year 9-13 students.

At its August meeting, the College Board agreed to the building of a forty-four room hostel to be located onsite. The facility will also include accommodation for hostel staff.

The area surrounding the student hostel will be transformed into a leafy, recreational space including a modern, state of the art playground.

“Over the past decade, we have strategically developed our buildings and now, after much research, we believe the time is right to advance the Boarding Hostel project which has been under consideration for some years”, Queen Margaret College Board Chairman Paul Foley says.

The College will be the only girls’ school in Wellington offering such accommodation to its students.

Queen Margaret College was originally founded in 1919 as a day school with a small number of girls boarding but the College Board closed the boarding facility in 1950.

“Boarding had gone out of favour but, with a strong demand for boarding at similar independent schools in New Zealand, we believe there is an opportunity to accommodate some of our international students and also New Zealand girls living outside Wellington,” Principal Carol Craymer says.

“While our roll is at record numbers, we are always seeking ways to ensure the continued success of the College. In this context, the Boarding Hostel will provide further resilience to our operations as it will contribute another important dimension to the quality independent education Queen Margaret College offers,” Paul Foley says.

Construction of the Boarding Hostel, which is to be called Queen Margaret House, will begin in September this year. The project has been designed by McKenzie Higham Architects and will be built by Maycroft Construction Ltd who were involved the construction of the Queen Margaret College Pre-school last year and were selected after a tender evaluation process involving multiple construction companies.

Queen Margaret College is Wellington’s leading, independent girls’ school, providing education for 700+ students from Year 1 to 13, with a co-educational Pre-School. Established in 1919 as an inner-city, Presbyterian girls’ college, this International Baccalaureate (IB) World School is known for its outstanding academic results and offers students a variety of sporting, cultural and leadership opportunities.

ENDS

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