Changing times at Weymouth for children in need

The rebuilt Weymouth centre will care for 20 children. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

A farm at which girls from the Weymouth Girls' Home used to ride horses and go canoeing has been sold for state housing and a new Maori-language school.

Child, Youth and Family Services has opened a scaled-down version of the original 1973 home west of Manurewa, catering for 20 young boys and girls compared with 60 in the earlier buildings.

A 15.6ha farm which ran from the Weymouth Rd buildings down to the Manukau Harbour was sold last month to Housing New Zealand and the Ministry of Education.

Housing NZ has paid $5.7 million for 10ha, which will be used for a mix of state, private and community-owned housing.

The Education Ministry has paid about $2.5 million for the rest of the farm.

A new school will be built there for Te Wharekura o Manurewa, a Maori-language high school now in temporary premises at the Manurewa Marae.

CYFS night worker Arlene Tahere has worked at the site since 1974, with one break.

She said the farm once had cows and horses, and a camp by the harbour which the girls used as a base for canoeing.

"In 1990 the funds were cut quite drastically and the camp fell into disrepair," she said.

The original facility providing "care and protection" for children who had been abused or neglected was merged with facilities for youngsters who had committed crimes.

"The facility turned into a containment of the children," Ms Tahere said.

That change has been reversed and a separate 46-bed centre for child offenders has been opened in Kiwi Tamaki Rd in Wiri.

The rebuilt Weymouth centre has cost $8.25 million and will house 20 boys and girls, mostly aged 14 to 17.

Although all have been sent for "care and protection", the new centre will confine them to locked buildings and outside exercise areas behind 4.5m fences.

CYFS' manager of intensive services, Ken Rand, said the youngsters had "complex needs", and the centre aimed to build their skills and characters with activities such as yoga, anger management and "pet therapy", in which the SPCA brings in animals for children to interact with.

"To run a farm in the way it used to be run is something that is no longer practicable," he said.

A Housing NZ spokeswoman said planning for the farm site was at a "concept" stage and she could not say how many homes might be built in the next three to four years.

The Education Ministry's network provision manager, Karl Hutton, said the ministry expected between 200 and 300 students for the wharekura, although its roll was well below that at present.

The wharekura will be the only years 9 to 13 Maori language high school in the Auckland region.