Henry Wilson, 5, wrote in his journal that his sisters were more scared by the Christchurch earthquake than he had been. Photo / Sarah Ivey
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Christchurch schoolchildren have swapped stories of their "holidays" on their first day back from the earthquake.
Five-year-old new entrants at Paparoa Street School yesterday returned to their classrooms after a week of disruptions from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake.
During the morning, teacher Theresa Pearson's class talked about the week they
had had away from school, discussing how the aftershocks had been getting smaller and smaller.
Later, the children wrote and drew in their notebooks. Out of a class of about 20, only four of them wrote about the earthquake. The rest talked about playing with friends and visiting family during a week that had become known as "the holidays".
"They're really good. They're happy to be back in school and back in a routine," said Ms Pearson.
The children practised emergency procedures in case of another earthquake, which involved pretending to be a turtle under their desks.
They were still going strong at the end of the day, relentlessly jostling the Herald as their friends were being photographed.
However, one sleep-deprived and exhausted pupil had to leave school early.
"I had one child go home at lunchtime because he hadn't been sleeping well," Ms Pearson said.
"To be honest, I think they're all quite tired."
Parents had been happy to have their children back at school, though some said they would have been uncomfortable if it had been any sooner. Principal Phil Harding said parents were happy to get some free time to sort through issues caused by the earthquake.
Most pupils were doing well, especially the younger ones, for whom the earthquake was ancient history, Mr Harding said.
"The seniors have been full of talking about it, but the juniors are focused on what's on top of their minds, just what happened yesterday or the day before," he said.
"For them, last week is so long ago."
Two English families had told him they were leaving the country because of the earthquake, Mr Harding said.
"They're going to the UK, saying they have flights booked for Thursday. But I'll believe it when they come off the roll." Many children had even slept through the earthquake and were completely unaffected.
Henry Wilson said he had had a fun day at school playing with the maths equipment.
Henry wrote in his notebook, alongside a picture of a table, that his older sister had been scared by the quake.
"We had a big earthquake. It was in the holidays. I wasn't scared, but my sister was. She wouldn't go out from under the table."
Henry said his sisters, 7 and 10, were more afraid even though they were older than him.
Pippa Gutry said she liked being at school more than being at home.
"I like play time. We do fun things," Pippa said.
Last week, she went swimming in a pool, one of the most memorable moments in her holidays.
In her notebook, Pippa drew a picture of her house standing on a bed of bright, green grass and wrote that the earthquake had been scary.
"I felt the earthquake in the holidays. It was scary. I had to sleep in my mum and dad's bed."
