Tauranga Special School marks 60 years with diamond jubilee

• Tauranga Special School, formerly Kaka St Special School, celebrates its diamond jubilee in May.
• The school educates 122 children with diverse needs, including autism and physical impairments.
• Principal Barrie Wickens highlights the school’s growth and unique challenges, including a waitlist of 19 families.

Tauranga Special School on 18th Ave has come a long way in its nearly 60 years.

Not only has its roll more than doubled, but there’s a long list of families waiting to enrol their children.

The school, which educates kids with diverse needs, celebrates its diamond jubilee in May.

The school once surrounded by farmland has seen the community grow up around it.

First opening in 1965, the school was originally named Kaka St Special School, changing its name in 2010, principal Barrie Wickens said.

Tauranga Special School Principal, Barrie Wickens, has been with the school for 23 years.

The school is home to 122 children with a maximum capacity of 127, aged 5 to 21, who are on the autistic spectrum or have physical and sensory impairments.

“We have some students that could be here for 16 years,” he said.

When Wickens started at the school two decades ago, there were 52 students.

Kristen Hall, and Nikora Finnerty at Tauranga Special School. Photo / Tom Eley

“Now it sounds like it’s taken 23 years to get double size.”

But the school does not get the same turnover of students a school such as Tauranga Intermediate will get, he said.

“Across the road, every year, it’s 600 in, 600 out.”

“So you would have a population with that intermediate over 40 years into the thousands.”

“Our population is in the low hundreds.”

There is no such thing as fees at the school, with funding coming from the Ministry of Education’s Ongoing Resource Scheme, Wickens said.

Wickens shows archive photos of the old school.

The original building, constructed in 1965, is still standing and has had a host of upgrades to match the needs of its students.

“We have got thousands of dollars worth of equipment here.”

There is a range of hoists and lifts to help the students out of their mobility supports and onto cushioned mats on the floor.

The school strives to preserve the students’ dignity, and teachers are not allowed to lift students over 16kg, Wickens said.

“It’s a no-lift school.”

The school faced some unique challenges because of the limited student capacity and had a waitlist of 19 families, he said.

Alongside the base school that comprises four separate teaching rooms and students, there are two offsite community classes and four that various schools host.

The Devonport Road Campus.

The classrooms are Tauranga Intermediate, Pāpāmoa College, Te Kura o Manunui, Welcome Bay Primary, Tauranga Community College Campus, Devonport Road Campus and the Specialist Teacher Outreach Service.

“We call these satellites because it’s like the old space scenario, you know, with this as the mother ship (18th Avenue),” he said.

There is no school zone that Tauranga Special School has to adhere to, but has a catchment from Katikati township to Paengaroa.

The class and specialist teams work side by side to help these children and their families reach obtainable goals, according to the Tauranga Special School Prospectus.

Tauranga Special School student, Jacob Cowley.

“We help them to try to reach their potential,” Wickens said.

The school follows the New Zealand Curriculum and incorporates the key competencies throughout the day, he said.

The jubilee is set for May 1 and 2, with one day set aside for the children and families and one more traditional event the following day.