Our board has wonderful news we wish to share with you all.
Ministerial Approval
Firstly, we have been advised that the Minister of Education has approved the relocation of our school to Johnsonville in 2025, extending our classes up to year 13 by adding one year level each year, expanding our maximum role to 210 students and approving the new name for our school for next year, being – Wellington Hills Christian College (WHCC) . Receiving this ministerial approval means we can now move forward to complete the purchase and ready ourselves for EQ strengthening and refurbishment work so we can be ready to open at the beginning of 2025.
This is an answer to decades of prayers of many faithful people who have dreamed and prayed for this to occur in Wellington city. We give glory and thanks to God for his faithfulness and are delighted to be seeing this occur in our time. We look forward to generations of many more young people in Wellington receiving the benefits of a quality Christian Education right through to year 13 at WHCC.
Announcing our new Principal for 2025
Our board is delighted to announce the appointment of Tim Kuipers as our new Principal from 2025. He will lead the process of establishing the school in Johnsonville, adding the year levels and developing a vibrant God honouring culture at WHCC. Tim has been Principal of Ashburton Christian School for about 15 years, having led the growth of that school from a very tiny rural school to over 260 students, and expanding the year levels to a full year 1 to 13 school. Tim will start as our new Principal at the end of this school year. Between now and the end of the year he will be sharing his time between Ashburton Christian School and working closely with our current principal, Kaye Gilles, in a contract capacity readying WHCC for 2025.
We also acknowledge Ashburton Christian School who have very generously provided significant release time for Tim to work on WHCC for the remainder of the year at no cost to our school and are covering both the cost of his release as well as funding several airfares to Wellington for Tim as he prepares our school for 2025. The Presiding Member (Board Chair) of Ashburton Christian School said they remember receiving support from a fellow Christian school when they started and appreciated how much this helped them starting off. Both our school and the Peniel Trust (who are providing the land and buildings for our school) are profoundly grateful that Ashburton Christian School would stand shoulder to shoulder with us as a fellow Christian school to see Christian education expand in our country.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge the incredible commitment of the many people who continue to work diligently to see WHCC launched well, and I am grateful for Kaye’s continuing commitment to our school as she supports the relocation process to allow more students to benefit from Christian education in Wellington city. Please continue to uphold in prayer everyone involved in this project and for God’s favour, blessing and protection for Wellington Hill Christian College.
Nga Mihi
Peter Wilding
Presiding Member/Board Chair
School Board
