Celebrating 150 years

What a privilege to be shared

Returning home to where one's breed

Whakapapa is the pull

To celebrate our starting school

As I pan the crowd of you

can't see many from 1872

The Native school as it was then

No chair or desk or flash Bic pen

This Native school for all to aspire

In 1924 was destroyed by fire

Rebuilt again strong and fine

Becoming the District School 1959

In for us this bay of plenty

Hatea-a-Rangi 1970

The school of which we are so fond

Unites us all by mutual bond

School for many I have a hunch

Was just a place to eat one's lunch

Again I assume for many of us

Our happy time was on the bus

Johnny Kururangi and Mr Porter

Delivered us all from every quarter

One was good and one was strict

And often there were backsides kicked

As we return from near and far

This stunning school defining who we are

We differ immensely as we live and thrive

But we were much the same when we were five

Mrs Pewhairangi in primma one

I remember vividly as school begun

Lena Naden and Boysie too

All teachers mould how you are you

We'll all remember specific things

As in our memories that old bell rings

Different teachers and different peers

We all recall our primary years

I feel privileged as I'm sure do most

To have lived my life on this stunning coast

There is a bond there is a pull

It is the spirit of this school

Thank you Hoana and your crew

For all you've done and all you do

A toast to memories and stories shared

And for what Gina Chaffey taught me . . behind the shed.