'Whose shoulders do I stand on?' Tararua school delves into history

An early photograph of the school. Photo / Supplied

Students at Dannevirke South School are learning about their school's history, and they need help from the community to do it.

Principal Caroline Transom said there were a lot of things they didn't know about the school and each team was doing different stuff for the project.

One of the main things they were exploring was how the four houses were named.

"The iwi names aren't from here and we can't find why the names came into being," Transom said.

She wanted to hear from anyone in the community who might be able to provide the answer.

"We want to know where it came from, and if it's really important we'll keep the names going."

Otherwise the school would look into asking local iwi for different names that they thought would be appropriate.

From what she has managed to find out so far, from going through different school information, the house names were in existence prior to 1967.

Transom said she was hoping people in the Dannevirke community might also be able to help with stories from either their own time at the school or what they might have heard.

"What we really want is for our kids to have a strong sense of what it means to be a South kid. What are the really special things, like whose shoulders do I stand on, what legacy am I adding to?

"We want those stories. Who in the community has those really cool stories?"

Stories like how the school started in 1900, which Transom found by reading the log books.

Dannevirke North school, which became Huia Range School in 2005, was opened first.

"We started because North was getting too big," she said.

Back then it was a long trip for the students to get to the school.

Any time the school needed anything that required money, they would have to write to the Hawke's Bay education board to get it.

Back in the 1920s, there were classrooms of 80 children and the school would be asking the government for money to get more room.

"It's amazing how some things continue," Transom said.

There were accounts of wartime and the school being closed for the Spanish Influenza pandemic in 1918.

"1923 was the last time the school shut for influenza. That pandemic was five years long and we think what we're going through is incredibly long."

The front part of the school as it is today. Photo / Leanne Warr

Some of the students have compiled a list of questions they have asked from the community such as what they wore to school, how students were disciplined, did students get school lunches, or why certain facilities were torn down.

Or even, why is there no room 13?

The school also has new buildings under construction and some of the students have sent a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, hoping that like former Prime Minister Sir Keith Holyoake, who opened the hall in 1967, Ardern would agree to coming to open the completed buildings.

The students are looking to hear from anyone in the community who has stories about the school.