Official opening for new classrooms

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11 Aug, 2021

WORDS/PHOTOS/JULIA WADE

Greeted with powhiri, song and haka, honoured guests were welcomed to the recent official grand opening of Mangawhai Beach School’s (MBS) state-of-the-art classrooms, just over a year after the first plod of soil was first turned for the new build.

Visitors, including Ministry of Education (MoE) representatives, local business sponsors, MBS Board of Trustees (BoT) and community members were joined by teachers, staff, Te Uri O Hau kaumatua Ben Hita, and 500-plus students in the school hall on August 11 for speeches and a rousing performance by MBS’s kapa haka.

The crowd then moved toward the schools waharoa (gateway) before being formally invited through with a karanga (summons) to witness the cutting of the ribbon across the entranceway of the new classrooms, by the oldest and youngest student.

In his welcome speech, MBS principal Aaron Kemp thanked the key people who had supported the build, especially ‘the hard work’ of the MoE team for making the much-needed classrooms become a reality.

“When I started at this school in 2011, there were 230 students and 15 staff. We now have 582 students with 56 staff, so it’s grown almost three times in ten years,” he says.

“As the school grew, I started to get worried… we had children using the library and then the dance studio for classrooms… so about five years ago I jumped on the phone to the ministry who got us our ten classrooms. It’s an amazing school and it’s been an amazing place to live.”

Funded by the MoE, the block of fully-insulated, spacious classrooms have large sliders between some of the rooms, allowing for teachers to merge classes, triple-glazed windows to reduce traffic noise, ‘wet areas’ with decking for children to play in rainy weather, offices and two blocks of unisex toilets.

As well as also thanking the team from MoE and Align builders, BoT chair Luke Canton acknowledged Aaron, deputy principal Emma Grieve and the staff at the school for their patience, fellow board members for their

perseverance, and also ‘the humble taxpayer’, ‘it’s always great to see tax dollars going to an excellent use’.

“The Board is very happy to be at the end of this build and with the new space,” he says. “When I think of this building experience, a famous war quote springs to mind: ‘This is not the end, it’s not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning’… now we are not at war but we are fighting a battle on the behalf of the school, we are excited about the challenge to make sure our fantastic children have classrooms and facilities to enable them to have the best education they can, we enjoy striving for our children’s future.”

 

“It’s an amazing school and it’s been an amazing place to live.”

Aaron Kemp, principal

1: After blessing the new classrooms, kaumatua Ben Hita (right) and Mangawhai Beach School principal Aaron Kemp acknowledge each other with a traditional hongi. The school has grown almost three times in ten years says Kemp.

2: Kaumatua Ben blesses the new building along with Pene Hita (left on steps) and Aliyah Connelly-Richards before guests took a wander through the colourfully decorated classrooms.

3: MBS BoT chair Luke Canton gives the youngest and newest student, Alice Farley – who only started the day before the ceremony – a hand to cut the ribbon, along with the school’s oldest student, Milo Parker.

4: Smiles all round; MoE representatives with principal Kemp and kaumatua Ben.

5: Aaron Kemp joins MBS students to start a full school haka.

6: MBS kapa haka entertains guests, staff and students with energy and grace.

7: Regional growth and development over the last decade has meant big changes for the local school. PHOTO/ELEVATED MEDIA
 

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