Castlecliff chalks up 125 years

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Margaret Forward and Van Carroll (Castlecliff School's youngest student) cut the cake to celebrate the school's 125th birthday. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

A century and a quarter ago Castlecliff School opened its doors to its first students. It was March 23, 1892, and the roll stood at 22.
Times have changed, the buildings have been replaced, education is different, but Castlecliff School remains an essential part of the community.
Last Thursday pupils, teachers, board members, former students and interested parties gathered in the SJC Williams Hall (Williams was a former principal) to hear a few words, sing happy birthday in Maori and English, and cut a splendid cake.
After a lusty karakia chanted by the school, formalities were started by Des Warahi, chairman of the board of trustees and also a Castlecliff School old boy. He read excerpts from the 1992 centenary reunion book about the early days of the school.
Following the school song principal Kathie Ellery acknowledged those present, saying it is unusual for an urban school to have such "heart", mostly as a result of multiple generations of local families attending over the years. It has made Castlecliff School unique in that regard.
"We wanted to acknowledge those generations," says Kathie, "so we started by going, 'Surely we've got three generations - the child, the mother and the grandparent' - and found we've got about 20 of those. To cut down the 20 or so we thought maybe we've got a fourth generation child in the school. And we have, so that's how we came up with our cake cutters."
The first knife into the cake was wielded by Margaret Forward, a former student, and the school's youngest pupil, Van Carroll. Van is a fourth generation Castlecliff student as his dad, Corey Carroll, his grandmother, Susan Carroll (nee Kauika) and his great-grandmother, Gineva Kahu-Kauika, attended Castlecliff School. Van has two cousins at the school, Hunter and Cheyanne Carroll, who are also fourth generation students.
Margaret's daughter Maressa spoke a little about her mum's recollections of school life at Castlecliff, having started in 1943.
The second cake cutters were Dante Papworth with his nana Missy Papworth. Dante's dad, Leroy Papworth, his grandmother, Missy Papworth, and his great-grandmother, Lavinia (Lovey) Ngataierua, all attended Castlecliff School.
Next were Kaelyn Lissington who cut the cake with her great-great-uncle Bryon, who represented his late brother. Bryon attended Castlecliff School (starting in 1939) with his brothers and sisters. Kaelyn's mother Karli Stevens attended Castlecliff School as Karli Hills as did her grandmother, Heather Hills, and her great-grandfather Robert (Bob) Hills, Bryon's older brother. Karli and Heather were both present at the cutting of the cake.
Next were a staff member and a student - Margaret Wilkins, who has been a student, teacher, parent and teacher again at Castlecliff School. As a student she attended as Margaret Caird and it was where Miss Caird had her first teaching position in 1972. She married at the end of that year and became Mrs Massey. Margaret and her husband settled in Castlecliff and their two daughters attended the school. She is now back as Margaret Wilkins. Her mother also taught at the school, as Mrs Caird.
Margaret cut the cake with the help of Matthew Springfield-Knight, whose birthday is on the same day as Castlecliff School. He turned seven on Thursday and received the traditional cupcake to celebrate.
The adults then retired to the library for a cuppa, a chat and a piece of cake.