Fairfield School is rethinking its plans for a new learning hub.
The school received $20,000 in the latest round of Otago Community Trust grants but it was not enough for it to advance on the proposed two-storey hub, Fairfield School principal Andy Larson said.
''For the Community Trust to give us $20,000 towards the project is absolutely marvellous and we were absolutely thrilled about it,'' he said.
The initial project was to cost about $1.5 million, of which the Ministry of Education had provided $1.2 million.
But following a meeting of the school's board of trustees last Monday, it was decided another plan would be developed, Mr Larson said.
''The hub plan is still going to remain,'' he said.
''But the concept of two storeys is gone. It will have to be single storey.''
It was the most substantive change to the school's plans and the board was in process of developing a new plan within budget, he said.
''We are trying to create a modern learning environment for our children,'' he said.
''It would change the way we are teaching our children.
''It's hard to envisage but we have to prepare our children to go into fields that may not exist yet.''
He was disappointed the proposed two-storey hub had to be scrapped, but philosophical about the wider project.
''We want it done as soon as possible,'' he said.
''We have still got four good classrooms in operation and three years to complete the project, so we are still on the right side of the ledger.''
The hub was about future-proofing the school and allowing teachers to ''teach alongside our children and not to our children'', he said.
It would allow greater teachers to meet the individual needs of pupils.
