Principals’ Musings - (Import
Pat Dunn’s text here – on separate disk formatted for Apple Mac -
Word) Pat Dunn More Principal's Musing's I was delighted to be appointed to my first principalship at the school. I continued to commute every day from Hamilton and the travel time proved to be a bonus – a great thinking time! The daily life of a small rural school was very different from the large city school that I had come from. Staff members have to spread themselves quite thinly at times because there are fewer people to deal with all of the areas of school organisation. A fantastic Board, hard-working staff and supportive community made the job very rewarding and enjoyable. We all worked hard but it was like working in your own business, the efforts were “ploughed straight back into the company” and went directly into our own children. And what children!! The children are, of course, the “reason for being” of a school and there are some stories to tell about most of them, but they will keep until the next reunion! Senior class camps were great. We were fed admirably by the mums who came with us and brought lots of that country home baking. These camps were a good place for the younger children to be for their first time away. Because everyone knows everyone else in the community, the children were able to interact with adults they knew well and did not have the same sense of homesickness that children can often feel when they first go on school camp. Calf club days are still a highlight of the school year. A huge amount of time and energy is put into raising the calves, lambs and kids and getting them ready for Calf Day. The time and effort put into the auction in the afternoon is incredible. The really noticeable thing about Hoe-o-Tainui is the way that the children all intermingle. The older ones help the younger ones. Teams for any activity can be of mixed ages and everyone accepts the abilities of everyone else. You simply do not get this in a large school. The opportunity is not always there for the children to mix so freely, but neither is the patience and understanding. Probably our most taxing time was when our roll dropped and we thought that we might lose a teacher. It seems to be the unhappy lot of today’s small rural schools that the rolls fluctuate so dramatically with the 1 June changeover. After a number of community meetings and meetings with Ministry of Education officials to explore alternatives, we decided to make an all out effort to bring new people into the area. The addresses of empty houses were listed and we advertised for tenants (with as many children as possible, of course). The houses were filled, the roll was rejuvenated, and the school was kept as a two-teacher school for the time being. I feel privileged to have been part of the school and I know that it will always be an important part of me.
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