The most beautiful school in the world: Remarkables Primary

I had forgotten how beautiful Queenstown was until I ventured down over the weekend and stumbled upon the most beautiful school on the planet just a few blocks away from where I used to live. So join in me in a spot of edu-tourism blogging.

Remarkables Primary is nestled into the shore of lake Wakatipu, one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand. In so many countries a public school on a piece of land so stunning would be unthinkable. The land would have long since have been on-sold to developers to build a high-end hotel. In fact there’s a Hilton literally the next bay over from the school.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit dreary and my photography a bit too mediocre to capture how stunning Remarkables school and surrounding scenery are.

Remarkables Primary takes it name from the mountain range overlooking Queenstown. There’s a ski field on the other side of the mountains. When I went to school in Queenstown, our weekly Physical Education classes were ski classes on one of the local ski fields.

What I love about the design of the school is the way it folds into the sloping bank of the lake. The roof is a living roof which is open for students to play on during breaks.

The only downside is that school is so close to Queenstown Airport that you can see the pilots picking their nose on final approach.

But the payoff is that you get to look at this from windows on one side of your classroom:

And have the mountains on the other side.

I can’t think of a more beautiful place in the world to be a school student.

Anyone up for organizing an EducampQtn?