Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti
Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti is a state secondary school originally located in the city centre of Christchurch, New Zealand. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake displaced the school and the closely associated primary school Discovery 1 to Aidanfield. In 2013, UPT will move to Ilam, and it hopes to be back in the central city by 2015. UPT and Discovery 1 are subject to a merger proposal by the Ministry of Education.HistoryIt was established in 2003 by the Christchurch-based Learning Discovery Trust, which had earlier set up the primary Discovery 1 School, and is one of just eleven schools running under the "Designated Special Character" criteria of the Education Act 1989, Section 156: "...The special character of schools established under this section is not specified in the Act, and parents may propose any desirable special character as long as no other local school is already delivering an education reflecting the same special character...". This special character element is similar in some respects to the charter school system in the United States.The school started with just 40 students (the "foundation forty"), but now has a roll of around 400 students, aged from 12 to 18 years of age.
