A great and cunning plan

The Herald reports:

Since the 1880s, a 37-acre site in the leafy Auckland suburb of Epsom was used to train teachers. 

Now Epsom MP and Act Leader David Seymour wants the site, empty since the last of the University of Auckland students left in 2024, to be the new location of an unzoned, co-educational public school.

And not just any school – one jointly operated by two of the country’s top state facilities – the neighbouring Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls Grammar.

“They would like to co-sponsor a co-educational high school in the ethos of those two excellent schools,” Seymour told the Herald while walking through the empty university grounds.

“The motivation is that if this land becomes housing, it will put huge pressure on their rolls. On the other hand, if they can add a new high-quality school to Auckland, then that’s got to be a good thing for everybody.”

This is an incredible visionary plan. There are so many parents in Auckland who would love to send their kids to a school in the ethos of AGS or EGGS, but can’t afford the median $3.2 million house price.

37 acres is a huge site, so the school could be as large as needed by demand. I suspect it would soon become the largest school in NZ.