St Peter’s opens new block

A new 12-classroom block at St Peter’s College, the Outhwaite Building, has been named after the family who donated the land the school is sited on.

St Peter’s College senior students in front of the new Outhwaite Building which was formally opened on August 26.

The Outhwaite family were early Auckland settlers, prominent in legal, administrative, musical, literary, artistic, social, sporting and Catholic Church life in the first 85 years of the city.
College principal Kieran Fouhy told NZ Catholic that the new block was formally opened on August 26 by Brother Sir Patrick Lynch, FSC, and blessed by the Bishop of Auckland, Bishop Patrick Dunn.
Mr Fouhy said the Outhwaite Building was a three-storey block of 12 classrooms that replaced a number of prefabs, some of which dated back to the 1940s.
The net effect is more land to use, Mr Fouhy said. “We have gained quite a considerable amount of land actually,
because we are going up rather than out, in a very controlled way.”
That would allow the school to eventually proceed with construction of a chapel.
Mr Fouhy said the new block has staff carparking on the ground floor. The first floor is for mathematics.
“It’s named after Br Vin Jury, CFC. He was an old boy and a very respected mathematician in the 1960s.”
The second floor is the humanities floor, named after Br G. Mills, CFC. “He was the first Christian Brother from New Zealand, and here from 1944 to 1949.”
Mr Fouhy said the new block follows a traditional design, but caters for boys by having plenty of space and having elements of a modern learning environment. There is office space, some open plan, for about 20 teachers.
St Peter’s is an all-boys school.
As well as speeches and the blessing, the opening featured an all-school haka, music by the school’s gold-medal winning band, and an explanation by senior school historians of the contribution of the Outhwaite family.
The family’s contributions to Auckland included land in Grafton which is now Outhwaite Park and St Peter’s College and a conservation reserve in the Hen and Chicken Islands.