Winning the first New Zealand PPP project was a key highlight of this project. The ASC Architects / Hawkins Construction team were commissioned to design, construct and manage for 25 years, two schools with a combined student population of 1,600 students. This project was won in competition against local and international consortia which puts into perspective the magnitude of this achievement. Both schools will be significantly different to any other New Zealand school in terms of construction quality, building performance and also in terms of their effectiveness as twenty first century learning environments. Both schools will achieve a five star Greenstar built rating, however the quality of the building skin and internal environment of these schools will be far above the standard of any school previously built in New Zealand.

The primary school opened for the beginning of the 2013 school year and the secondary school will be open a year later. The total value of these two projects is in the vicinity of $100 million. This is perhaps the most significant single Ministry of Education project ever.

The key architectural innovations achieved in this project centre around a response to the Ministry of Education's vision for the delivery of Modern Learning Environments around the country. New Zealand is recognized by the OECD as a world leader in the delivery of public education. The New Zealand government has used this project as the opportunity to set a far higher benchmark in public school buildings. The major innovations centre around making learning environments which are more focused on delivering enquiry based learning which is regarded internationally as educational best practice. In addition, the quality of acoustics, natural light, ventilation and outdoor environments are far higher than those achieved in any other public school in the country.