THE PRESENT SCHOOL

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1935, Page 9

THE PRESENT SCHOOL

INTERESTING OLD BLOCK INFANTS’ OPEN-AIR CLASSROOM. CAPACIOUS ASSEMBLY HALL. With its high gabled roofs, painted red, its tall windows and its position close to the road, the present Hawera Main school is one of the conspicuous landmarks of Hawera, and a tour of inspection of the school is both interesting and instructive. Even more interesting is the old portion, now disused except for certain purposes. The main entrance leads the visitor to the assembly nail, affine wide hall with a high roof. A stage at one end makes it ideal for concerts or speeches. Classrooms run alongside each wall of the hall. In the main building there are seven classrooms and one room of the old building is used. Another room in the old block is devoted to the library and a third is used by members of the Turftown Women’s Institute, as well as being the room for exhibitions of motion pictures or anything of educational interest to the children. A special classroom is not now used. The infants’ school is one of the open- ] air type now popular in Taranaki, but when erected in 1928 it was one of the first in the province. To say it has proved a boon is almost to condemn it, for its use has been of inestimable value. There are five classrooms in the block,, an assembly room and a teachers’ common room. The open air type must surely be the healthiest possible building for tjje education of children. When it is blowing a gale outside the overhanging eaves of the building, prevent any coldness inside and windows may be kept wide open, ensuring a maximum of ventilation. In the heat of summer the ventilation process works the opposite way. While the outside world may stifle in the heat, inside the classrooms the atmosphere is. always cool and there is never the suggestion. of the enervating atmosphere that' makes the problem of keeping children, awake, let alone interested, one of the major issues facing teachers. In the old:

type of school, like the present main building, the ventilation is largely of the hit-and-miss type and rain and wind have a disturbing effect usually necessitating the closing of the window's except at interval periods. With the open air rooms, the product, by the way of Mr. C. H. Moore, the Taranaki Education Board’s architect, immense difficulties, are overcome and children work in an atmosphere always congenial and always likely to give the best results.