Principal Toni Burnside says there is lots of excitement around the new building. Construction is expected to take 16 months and will include a hall, which the school’s current site does not have, along with four teaching pods, an administration block, and a library. The new school will be called Pareawa Banks Avenue School. Pareawa means “adorn the banks of the river”. About 100 students, staff, parents and former pupils attended a symbolic sod turning service on Thursday to mark the start of the development. Principal Toni Burnside said it was an important milestone for the school. “We should have been in our new school in 2017, so we ve got photos of the children who should have been here,” she said.