Wharenui Pupils Must Attend Intermediate

Press, Volume C, Issue 29697, 15 December 1961, Page 21

Wharenui Pupils Must Attend Intermediate

The Minister of Education (Mr Tennent) has ruled that this year’s Standard four pupils at Wharenui School must attend Kirkwood Intermediate next year. A deputation from the school committee, led by its chairman (Mr H. C. Anderson), went to Wellington last month and saw Mr Tennent to appeal against his decision, but was unsuccessful. “The school committee is unhappy about being compelled to transfer the children,” Mr Anderson said yes-

terday. He said that by 1963 the school would be a contributing one to Kirkwood Intermediate. During 1962 there would be a Standard 6 but no Standard 5 at Wharenui. Protests had been made about the plan since 1956, Mr Anderson said. The committee's main objection was that the children would have to cross Riccarton road. About 70 to 80 children would be affected by the transfer next year, and they would have to cross Riccarton road at least twice, and, for many of them, four times a day, he said. “The children will put a lot of traffic on Riccarton road, and many children will ride along it on their bicycles and make right-hand turns,” Mr Anderson said. “We have already had one fatality on the road.” Another objection was that Wharenui would have empty classrooms, and to accommodate the two extra classes in 1963, a new classroom would have to be built at Kirkwood Intermediate, he said. The school committee, as laymen, were not happy about the intermediate system, and had noted that even the experts disagreed, he added. According to Mr Anderson, Mr Tennent told the deputation that the intermediate system was now part of the education set-up in New Zealand, and he wanted to avoid a piecemeal system existing. He would see that a pedestrian crossing was placed on Riccarton road.