There are calls for Auckland's Dilworth School to develop a campus for girls, as the success of the boys' school is celebrated, 125 years on from its founders death.
Dilworth School was the brainchild of philanthropist James Dilworth and wife Isabella, to give boys who were orphans or from impoverished backgrounds the opportunity to become good citizens through a good education.
The Auckland school started in 1906 with just a handful of boys and one teacher - over a century later, their enduring gift continues to transform boys lives.
“It's proven itself to be an extraordinary place where boys can come and develop and also have great educational achievement, and we just don't have a place like that for girls,” says Frances Valintine, Dilworth School board trustee.
Dilworth trustees say it's time to set up a girls’ school based on the current structure but it's going to take a lot of money.
“We're talking in the vicinity of $350 million in perpetuity so that we're not just planning for a ten year school, we're planning for a two hundred year school,” says Ms Valintine.
Right now the Dilworth model provides each boy with an annual scholarship of $35,000 which covers every facet of their education, board tuition, meals, uniforms and even pastoral care.
More than 5,000 boys have been through Dilworth, their academic success comparable to the best state schools.
The trust has around $900 million in cash and assets but that money is ring fenced.
So it's hunting for new money; benefactors who on the 125th anniversary of the death of founder James Dilworth want to leave their own legacy.
“Looking out there and saying who else is out there would like to create a school of this magnitude for girls,” says Ms Valintine.
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