New Zealand College of Early Childhood Education... | Stuff.co.nz

DAVID HALLETT/Fairfax NZ

STARTING OVER: Early-child education students at work in the new Northcote campus.

After 18 months, five relocations and the loss of all teaching resources, an earthquake-shaken college has a permanent home.

The New Zealand College of Early Childhood Education yesterday opened its new Northcote campus, nestled in two warehouses at the back of a Sawyers Arms Rd industrial estate.

The college had to abandon its Victoria St campus, which was severely damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.

Staff and students escaped with their lives but were forced to leave all their resources behind.

Chief executive Andy Walker said they watched in horror as people, "some dirtied and bloodied", fled the central city after the quake.

"At the time it was probably for the best that we did not know that we would never be able to retrieve our teaching material and resources," he said.

"For many of our staff, this represented a career's worth of material which had significant professional and personal value."

Walker instructed senior staff to find a new campus in the days after the quake.

Staff drove around the city, trawled through newspapers and the internet and met real estate agents before securing the warehouses in late February last year.

"We missed securing one premises by one hour, beaten by a large legal firm," he said.

It was a chance meeting with a real estate agent showing an unsuitable property that led to the discovery of two empty warehouses at the back of a small industrial estate.

While work began to secure building permits and "twist developers' arms" to turn the warehouses into academic facilities, students assembled for class at the Riccarton Racecourse.

Third-year student Erin Cowlishaw said it had certainly been an experience.

"We had horses running around us when they held race meetings," she said.

"It made us stronger. We are a very close group."

After the June 2011 quakes the college based classes on the new campus.

Students were housed in the Morrison Ave Bowling Club, the Papanui Baptist Church, the Papanui Scout Den and the North City Church in Sawyers Arms Rd.

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/7358805/Students-finally-get-a-new-home

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