Money lets you do as you please! Couple spend 10,000,000 building a private school for their children in Auckland, with fees of 16,000!

Money really does let you do as you please!

 

In the family pictured, the father is Evan Christian, a property developer on New Zealand’s rich list. The mother, Katherine Allsopp-Smith, is an interior designer who also represented New Zealand at Miss World in 2000.

 

 

The couple have both brains and good looks. They recently attracted media attention after spending NZ$10,000,000 to build a private school for their children.

 

Their eldest son, Branson, was getting ready to start school, but they could not find a school anywhere in Auckland that could meet their gifted son’s need to learn about mechanics and robotics.

 

 Moving home repeatedly to find the right school, as Mencius’s mother did, is too much trouble. Starting your own school is much simpler!

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Allsopp-Smith said she and her husband Evan both did well academically, but neither enjoyed school because traditional schooling failed to spark their enthusiasm and interest in learning.

 

“We believe childhood should be a happy time, rather than dull and boring.” “What we saw led us to think his experience of education would probably be much like ours when we were young.”

 

So the couple set up a school called the Academy for Gifted Education (AGE) in an office building in Takapuna.

 

Including their eldest son Branson, AGE has around 20 students. This year, the couple decided to spend NZ$10,000,000 expanding the school. It is expected to move into a building in Takapuna’s commercial district next year.

 

The new campus will be covered in greenery. Here is what the exterior will look like:

 

 

Here is the interior:

 

 

From 2021, the school will offer the full curriculum from Year 1 to Year 13, with capacity for 150 students. Annual tuition fees will be 11,000–20,000, with scholarships planned for families unable to afford them.