Working at Kai iwi School near Whanganui a perfect role for long-serving staffer

Kai Iwi School pupils Ruby Hughes (left), Millie Ford-Price, Eloise Calman and James Jenkins prepare to bid farewell to their long-serving office manager Wendy Wilson.

Wendy Wilson has seen some significant changes at Kai Iwi School during her 34 years as office manager and this will be her last week in the role.

"When I started, I had a desk with a typewriter in the corner of the staff room," Wilson said.

"There were just two classrooms and now there are four."

One thing that has not changed are some of the names on the school roll, which is currently 80.

It reached 110 a couple of years ago, the highest it has been since Wilson started at the school in 1987.

"I have seen a couple of generations grow up while I've been here.

"I live locally and so I'm very much part of this community and know a lot of the families well.

"Some of the children catch the bus to school from town these days but there are local families from Kai Iwi and Maxwell who have been coming here for decades."

Wilson grew up in the area and attended the former Rapanui School and later her two daughters attended Kai Iwi School.

"My grandson attends St George's now," she said.

Wilson has her own sunny office these days but a few years ago there was a burglary that made her feel uncomfortable for a while.

"They took the safe which had all the registers since the school opened locked inside.

"The police eventually found it dumped on the beach and everything inside had been burned to ashes."

Former pupils had since supplied some photos and mementos of the school's history but Wilson said it was a pity to lose those precious records.

New technologies had made her job easier over the years and she was not affected by the Novopay debacle of a few years ago, Wilson said.

"We were lucky here because we didn't have the problems here that some schools had.

"The system works really well now."

Wilson said she had no big plans for her retirement at this stage and would see how she felt after the winter.

In the meantime, there is her ukulele group the "Uke Troop" which meets weekly and entertains at rest homes as well as community events and Wilson is also keen on crafts and aerobics.

"I will miss the daily contact but I'll still be part of this community," she said.

"I have loved watching the children grow from little new entrants into tall Year 8 students.

"It is a lovely environment and I have been very fortunate to work at a rural school in my own community for so long."