Headmaster’s message
The College is excited about the addition of a Performing Arts Centre to our facilities. Not only does it exemplify the College’s commitment to the Performing Arts but it also endorses existing programmes and introduces new art forms to the College’s offering to students. The Performing Arts is vital to the new future ahead of them as they venture in the world after their time at King’s.
The Centre is crucial to the College in that it complements the range of opportunities students have while they learn at King’s and will offer another variety of options beyond the existing facilities, such as the dynamism of Fine Arts spaces, Technology, Computing and Science laboratories, to name a few.
In the new world, students need to be able to be creative, innovative and flexible as they strike new problems which require new solutions. Our students move out to a world which is dynamic, forever changing and evolving. Beyond the acquisition of knowledge, being able to be creative, innovative and flexible is vital to students’ ability to strive and thrive in the future.
It is this capacity which we try to grow in our students, instilled and encouraged by such subjects as Drama, Music and Dance, in addition to the integrated programmes of these disciplines such as Musical Theatre. Even traditional subjects such as the sciences and Mathematics require creative minds. It is the amalgamation of these abilities which enables new realities and discoveries.
With our new facility will come new capabilities. A specialist theatre with flexibility, malleability and unconstrained structure will enable traditional and new ways to perform. With a specialist theatre that features sound, lighting and set infrastructure, the College will also be able to teach sound, lighting and set design within the precinct. To that we add a specialist orchestra room, three teaching spaces, a specialist dance and drama space as well as the various connecting elements which in themselves facilitate the multidisciplinary approaches we seek within the Performing Arts.
The Performing Arts Centre is a new building block to providing the Best All-Round Education.
The building itself encapsulates and exudes the very notions we are trying to create and develop in our young people. It demonstrates both structure and creativity, enabling within our students the craft which is Performing Arts.
Our new Performing Arts Centre will reimagine King’s standing as a school for culture and all sorts of performances. Initiated by a generous lead gift from Old Collegian Michael Flanagan (Peart, 1951–55), the new Centre will not only lift King’s connection with the arts, but it will also dramatically change the profile of our campus.
If you and your family also believe the world needs creative minds, and that embedding culture in our young people enriches and informs our society, I invite you to come forward and pledge your support to our new Performing Arts Centre. Together we can provide the financial support needed to begin this exciting new chapter in King’s College’s history.
Virtus Pollet.
Simon Lamb
Headmaster
Director’s note
This is a call to action.
Beginning with the purchase of 42 acres of land in rural Middlemore in 1917, King’s College has been built by successive generations of the King’s community. There have been a few notable individual benefactors over the years, but the most striking feature is the many families who have contributed throughout our history and have created the magnificent school we all appreciate today.
Your time has come.
As we prepare to celebrate 100 years on our Ōtāhuhu site in 2022, it’s now the turn of this generation of the College family to invest in the future of our school.
Over the course of the last 100 years, education has changed enormously and today it is a dynamic and highly competitive business that must prepare its students for careers that will be very different from those of their predecessors in a world that is rapidly changing. King’s aspires to be among the very top educational institutions in New Zealand and to be preparing our students in the best way possible to meet their future challenges.
Even though the way we teach will continue to evolve and change, education will always be about the students - about understanding their fundamental needs and the values that will help guide them through life beyond the school gates.
At its core, the Next Horizon campaign is about King’s College being able to deliver a world-class educational experience for our students into the 21st century. That means world-class teachers and a broad range of subjects that will prepare our students for the vast myriad of career choices available to them. It also means world-class facilities and the integration between the core educational curriculum and the extensive variety of co-curricular options on offer.
The new Performing Arts Centre will be a remarkable chapter in the history of King’s. It will clearly lift the school’s connection with the Performing Arts, but it will also help reposition King’s as a school with culture and performance as a core offering, while equipping our students with the creative skillset to move through life.
We cannot simply rest on our reputation. Some of the oldest and most traditional colleges and universities in the world are also among the most innovative and forward thinking. At King’s, our vision is to be a leader in education in New Zealand, to be an innovator and to be grasping with the challenges of tomorrow before they arrive.
But we need your help. It’s 15 years since the successful Mind, Body & Soul campaign funded the development of the Roy Kelley Design and Technology Centre and the Chapel Close. Three generations of students have passed through the College since then.
It’s now the turn of this generation of the King’s community to maintain that investment and to ensure the College continues to be an educational leader over the next 100 years.
Virtus Pollet.
Ross Green
(Selwyn, 1968-72)
Next Horizon Campaign Chair
