OPUNAKE SCHOOL YEAR

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1931, Page 7

OPUNAKE SCHOOL YEAR

MOVING POPULATION TROUBLE. IMPROVEMENTS TO GROUNDS. The annual meeting of houatholdSta was held at Opuhake on Monday evening.. There was,a fair attendance. Mr. G. Hutton was voted to the chair. The balance-sheet showed a credit of £25. The headmaster.(ME W. .Burgess) reported that the work of belli departments of. the school hag been very Successful, the great majority of the pupils provinv themselves worthy of promotion to a higher class at the end. of the echool year. Thia reflected much credit on the staff of the school. The staff has again been very earnest anil loyal. The school had indeed been fortunate ; in having very few changed of staff for several years/, The only changed had been in the junior teachers, whose movements were governed by regulations. There was no doubt a teacher could- do better work after being in a School for some time and becoming weil acquainted with both pupils and parents. The roll number of the primary department remained fairly steady at about 180 and the secondary roll was o-enerally jUBt oVOt 40; at present it is 45. The standard, of work in any school depends a great deal On the regularity of attendance of the pupils. It was useless for parents to expect children who were frecuently absent to mike as o-ood. progress as regular at tenders.. Moving from school to school also seriously retarded the education of children. Most schools in NOW Zealand suffered considerably on that account. In the Oplinhke school since .1910' there had been iust over 1000 enrolments and over 800 withdrawals. The average roll number for that period was roughly 130. This meant that about 40 per cent.-of th* scholars each year were on the move. Teachers had groat difficulty in pr<mdin«r education for this roving population. During the year a concert was organised to raise funds, the net proceed* amounting to just Over £l9. To those who were not teachers thit SCCnied an easy way to raise money, and hence ■ whenever money was required .people said “Get ua a concert; that is the easiest way to raise money!” So it was for them, but what of those organising the concert and the time lost by the pupils as a result of practising for the concert and lack of concentration on work? Teacher* would not mind much trying to surmount these difficultics if others would show some in- : itiative and raise further sums of money by some means that would not interrunt the school work.., .Money .was needed for concreting round the prim-. ary school. The chairman (Mr. G. H. Hutton) reported on the year’s work *a follows: A piano was purchased for the High School at a cost of £45 7S 6d, As this,, expenditure had to be met out of funds collected locally we had very-little left to spend on ground or general improvements. However, since the close Of the financial year advantage has been taken of the unemployment scheme No. o, and as a result the playing area of about 3 acres has been stone-drained, ploughed, levelled and sown in grass. - The Education Board supplied the grass seed. The area adjoining the tennis courts has also been put in order and sown in grass. In order to expedite completion of these works some of the men Were kept . Oh at the expense of the committee when the Government scheme was, temporarily stopped. 2decSrs. Sorenson and Maindonaid worked some days o-ratuitopsly in order tluto full advantage might be taken of theffine weather. Messrs. Spence, E.- G. Baylis, B. Bowman, J. S. Hickey, J. C. Barrett and others* gave the use of implements necessary in the several operations. At the end of 1930 we lost the servlcte of Miss Curryer and Miss McLellan Their places have sine® been taken b Miss Fleming and - Mr. Clegg. Owing to. ill-health MisS Scarrow was absent for some time. During her absence we had the services of Miss Johnstone. Four of the High School pupils succeeded in matriculating and one pupil passed the Training College examination. yVe wish to congratulate the headmaster and the staff In thia connection./ After some year* of faithful and invaluable service as secretary to the committee Mr. Arthur Raynor "resigned at the end of 1930 owing to his removal to Toko. Those residents Who have at,, times served on the committee Will know the good work he has done in the interests of the school. Mr. K. McNae has since carried out the secretarial duties. The committee elected was: T.P. Hughson, A. Hindi, G. Hutton (chairman), K. A. MdStae (secretary); H. H. Gilshnan, W. D. Rlfhards and D. Fraser.

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