Robyn Parkes
We catch up with Hau School in 1930 with a slipping roll of 37 students with an average attendance of 35.
In June, at the monthly committee meeting held at Hau School, the committee members spoke to the parents on the matter of attendance. They were told that if attendance fell below the average roll of 36 the school would lose one of its two teachers. Effie Parker resigned in July 1931 and was farewelled by parents and children.
The attendance rate continued to slip and by 1933 stood at 28. Around this time Miss L. Desaunais was the teacher at Hau.
In late 1938 the subject of amalgamating Hau School into the main primary school was on the agenda, but went no further.
In December, Miss Desaunais resigned as she was to be married. As World War Two began to grip the world, the young pupils of Hau School played their part by raising £1 per head of the number on the school roll for the Sick and Wounded Soldier Fund.
Their teacher, Miss Kelly, and several residents set to work with gathering firewood, preserves, vegetables, etc., and finding markets for these items. The children did very well. Miss Kelly remained at the school until May 1943 when she took up a position in the North Island.
At the end of each year, the children, parents and guests partook in a celebration afternoon. Most years it began with the judging of vegetable plots which the children grew and cared for, a concert, afternoon tea and the favourite with all the children, the arrival of Father Christmas.
The 1943, Alan Price and Denis Goodman won joint first place for the vege plots. Stuart Quayle received the prize for top boy in the school and Ken Brotherson for the most helpful pupil, from their teacher Laura Ingram.
In 1944 Billie Brotherson was presented with a prize for the most attentive pupil during religious instruction and Robin Wratt won first prize for his vegetable plot with Billie Brotherson second and Max Palmer third. Special prizes were given to J. Pahl, S. Smith, J. Shannon and R. Brotherson.
The school was also awarded for the first time, a certificate for environment and honours certificates for vegetable gardens. In 1945 the children completed a display of the schoolwork including lino cuts, paper mâché and baked clay models, drawings and essays, collections of flowers and feathers, and two cats made of pussy willow flowers pasted on paper. Prizes went to George Smith and Edith Smith.
Also part of the celebrations was a flower show with a decorated basket won by Peggy Wells, float bowl - David Bignell, buttonhole - Anne Robinson and Robert Atkins, sand posy - Shirley Grooby and John Hurley, vase of flowers - Joe Smith, Margaret Bignell and Robert Atkins and collection of vegetables - Bing Pahl and David Smith. In the early part of the afternoon a “pets parade” was held with children leading round their pets dressed in fancy costume. The prize-winner for the parade was Robert Aitkin’s large and woolly lamb dressed in pyjamas.
Second was John Hurley’s dog in khaki shorts and third was Edith Smith’s kitten in pink. The biggest thrill of the day was the arrival of Father Christmas, arriving in a pony trap drawn by a black pony and carrying a bag laden with presents.
Young visitors to the school were given toys from the bag and then Santa moved to the Christmas tree from which coloured parcels hung, giving each pupil a gift from the tree. Hau School operated until the mid-1950’s when the school was closed and in 1955 the school buildings were removed to Te Awhina Marae to be repurposed.
