The Mangamahu School community gathered to celebrate 125 years of education on Saturday.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
The Mangamahu School community gathered to celebrate 125 years of education on Saturday.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
Mangamahu School celebrated 125 years of primary education with a community lunch and special cake.
The school is a 45-minute drive from Whanganui with a current roll of just five pupils.
Never a big school, it has always been characterised by a sense of belonging, family and connection to therural surroundings.
Principal Rosalie Matthews has been the sole charge principal and teacher for the past six years with assistance from office administrator and teacher aide Tiffiney Firmin.
On Saturday, around 50 present and past pupils, families and friends gathered to mark the school's special anniversary with a specially made cake in form of an HB pencil.
Two special guests were former pupils Joan Harris (nee Dicker) and Allan Dalgleish who attended Mangamahu School in the 1940s.
A photo in the school records shows Harris, fondly known as "Granny" to Mangamahu residents, and Dalgleish planting an acacia and a Norfolk Pine at the domain in 1947.
Current staff Tiffiney Firmin (back left) and Rosalie Matthews caught up with 1940s pupils Joan Harris and Allan Dalgleish.
Photo /Lewis Gardner
Mangamahu School's earliest records from 1894 to 1919 have been sadly lost due to a visiting teacher disposing of them but the earliest records make for interesting reading.
Boys were required to salute their teachers in 1919 and in 1928 planting of the school's macrocarpa hedge was completed.
In 1936 a teacher (Mr P Bryers) was two days late for school because of floods and some children couldn't get to school because a truck crashed through the swing bridge.
The school's first "hot point" was installed in 1937 and 200 trees were planted around the school in 1940.
In 1942, the school was admitted to the county library service and in 1945 it was wired for electric light.
A special pencil cake was shared to mark 125 years.
Photo / Lewis Gardner
In 1953, the school celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II with films in the hall, a bonfire in the paddock and the planting of a scarlet oak tree.
In 1955, it was proposed that Mangamahu be amalgamated with upper River Rd schools but parents voted against the move.
Then, in 1960, Mangamahu gained a second classroom and teacher.
Mangamahu remains an independent school but joins Fordell, Okoia, Aberfeldy, Whangaehu, Kaitoke and Upokongaro for combined activities as part of the Whanganui East cluster.
