Thirty-one girls from all over the North Island can now sit in a Rotorua Girls’ High School classroom and call this city their home.
The school has officially opened its new boarding hostel, Te Whare Whawhao, marking a significant step as it officially becomes the first girls’ state school boarding hostel in the wider Bay of Plenty.
For the girls, having the chance to go to Rotorua Girls’ High School is like being in a “shopping mall for learning”.
Te Whare Whawhao was officially blessed at a dawn service yesterday morning and the girls and their families were given a whakatau (welcome) yesterday afternoon.
The hostel is based on the Toi Ohomai campus and is a newly renovated 32-bedroom lodge on picturesque grounds that was previously used for international students.
Although the school is within walking distance, the hostel has two vans to take the girls to school each day.
For principal Sarah Davis, it’s a dream come true. A staunch believer in girls’ education, she has come from a background of schools with hostels and was a former hostel director overseas. She said she knew the benefits for not only the girls but the school.
“It’s a win-win. A lot of people at the school are excited to see them arrive and they will be seen as special students in the school.”
She said the “hostel kids” were there with the purpose of doing well and often boosted the school in areas of academics, sport and culture.
She said it could take up to 55 girls but to have 31 already was incredible. She said there were others who were likely to join in the coming weeks and months.
The annual cost is $13,000 and includes food, which is contracted to Ka Pai Kai Rotorua for breakfasts and dinners. Lunch is provided at the school. Davis said there were funding grants available through the Ministry of Education.
Half of the students are Year 9 and will take up the entire ground floor in shared rooms that change each term.
The older students will be on the second floor and currently Year 12 students have their own room, Davis said.
The whānau of one of the students, a 13-year-old Year 10 from the East Cape, who wanted to keep their identities private, said their daughter was fiercely independent and her ambition had outgrown the opportunities where they lived.
“Kapa haka, te reo, hauora, dance, sports, theatre, music, fashion, photography, business, visual design ... it was as though she was in a shopping mall of learning, with all her favourite things on display.”
Janelle Laurence from Kaitaia was originally sending her 12-year-old daughter to further her basketball career, but once they arrived last year to check it out, her 15-year-old daughter, Keira-Sky, fell in love with the place.
This week Laurence was saying goodbye to both daughters but said there was a piece of her heart in Rotorua having been born here. Her grandmother is buried in Rotorua and they have other whānau connections in Rotorua too.
Peyton was looking forward to joining the school’s basketball academy while Keira-Sky had her sights set on the arts offerings.
Meanwhile, Laurence joked she was losing her daughters, cleaners and babysitters of her other three young children, aged 2, 4 and 6 in the same week.
“But I have to be strong. The choice is the right one for the kids. They are coming to better themselves and as a parent, what more can you do.”
Whaitiri Savage, 13, from Te Kaha and Te Aniwaniwa Rameka, 15, from Taupō, arrived at the hostel yesterday with their families feeling nervous and excited.
Whaitiri’s mother, Denny Savage, said Te Kaha was so isolated and she knew her daughter would flourish at Rotorua Girls’ High School. Whaitiri said she was keen to explore the school’s netball, rugby and tag opportunities.
For Te Aniwaniwa, it will be the first time the Year 12 student is not going to a total immersion kura kaupapa.
She had spent all her school years in Auckland education but her whānau now lived in Taupō.
Her father, David Rameka, said the school’s te reo standards were high and his daughter was keen to get involved in kapa haka, touch, tag, league and rugby.
Her mother, Bernie Thomson, said they had always looked at Rotorua Girls’ High School given its “amazing” reputation and when it announced it was opening a hostel, they were keen to get in.
Year 9, Year 13, and new students start at the school today and all remaining students start tomorrow.