Lonely term ahead for principal

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Bob Abraham would like to have called the roll at Wairata School yesterday, but no one would have answered.

All the desks were empty; there were no kids swapping sandwiches in the playground.

Wairata School simply has no children.

Yet for the next term Mr Abraham, principal and sole teacher, must show up at the school, deep in the Waioeka Gorge 40km from Opotiki, every day.

Last year, Wairata was a three-roomed school with seven children and four computers.

It had won two national school competitions - collecting barcodes off toothpaste and milk bottles - and a small fortune in prizemoney. Yet parents decided their children would be better off at a larger school, with more friends to play and learn with, so they voted to wind the school up.

It will take a few months for the paperwork to go through as Wairata merges with Matawai School, half an hour's drive away.

In the meantime, Mr Abraham will keep the school grounds tidy and start packing books.

He has also volunteered to drive his former pupils, including his 6-year-old daughter Mei, to and from Matawai.

Yesterday was his first trip, but by the end of the week, the children of Wairata will be travelling in style. The parents are leasing a school bus, courtesy of the Education Ministry.

The children were a little apprehensive, but excited yesterday about starting at a "big school" - Matawai has 80 pupils and four teachers.

"Kids are pretty adaptable - they are just taking it in their stride," Mr Abraham said.

It is the parents who are more devastated.

Farmer Bob Redpath grew up in the valley and spent his childhood at Wairata School. His two sons, Damian and Logan, followed him there.

"It's a very sad time, losing a little school," he said.

"It's just the changing pattern of the population. This used to be a valley of young families, but they have all grown up and there are no more moving in."

Sue Boot, chairwoman of the board and whose three children went to Wairata, said the constantly falling roll had finally taken its toll.

"We had fewer parents to go on the board, and we felt we could give our children a better education, mentally and socially, if they were with a larger number of children," she said.

"We didn't have enough kids for team sport, and my son had only one other child to be his friend.

"There are no pre-schoolers in the valley, so we couldn't see a future here. We have to accept the truth - people are moving out of the rural areas."