Pukekohe Hill School History

1. Pukekohe Hill School History By Karishma, Eden, Connaugh and Gabriel

2. Table of contents: Slide 1: Principals to remember Slide 2: Pukekohe Maori School Slide 3: The Fire Slide 4: Mrs Ritchie Slide 5: Mr Rix Slide 6: Mrs Hari Slide 7: Mrs Reid Slide 8: Mrs Chamberlain Slide 9: Mrs Smart Slide 10: Humorous Stories Slide 11: Credits

3. Principals to remember: • Mr Bates – Pukekohe Maori School • Mr Worthington - Pukekohe Maori School • Mr Manning - Pukekohe Maori School/Pukekohe Hill School • Mr Morgan - Pukekohe Hill School • Mrs Tapsell - Pukekohe Hill School • Mr Rix – Pukekohe Hill School

4. Pukekohe Maori School Initially, Pukekohe Hill School was a native Maori school. It was created by the Maori princess so that all Maoris could feel accepted. The school first started in 1953 and only 63 children attended that year.

5. The Fire In 1970 there was a fire that happened at Pukekohe Hill School. Mr Morgan was the principal/headmaster at that time and was the first person to notice the fire. The fire actually started at 4:00am but he saw the flames from his house a mile and a half away 4:15am. Later on it was discovered that it was arson. The fire still remains a mystery as to who started the fire.

6. Mrs Ritchie Mrs Ritchie is the Deputy Principal of Hill school . She has been at this school for 26 years and is also our tutor who has guided us and helped us to find out more about the history of Pukekohe Hill school and Pukekohe Maori school.

7. Mr Rix Mr Rix is the principal of Pukekohe Hill School and has been since 1995. He was a teacher for 37 years and a principal for 27 years. Surprisingly, he became principal as soon as he started working here.

8. Mrs Hari Mrs Hari works in our school resource room. She has been here ever since she was a child. She came here in 1966 for 1 year. She was in standard 4 which is now called year 6. When she was in standard 4 there were only 8 classrooms. She said that they got 10 – 15 minutes at 2:00 every afternoon for something that they had called little play. She has been working at this school for 14 years now.

9. Mrs Reid Mrs Reid is a teacher at our school and teaches a year 2 class. She has been teaching at our school for 20 years and has been a qualified teacher for 35 years. She was not here at this school when the fire happened although she said that she was very sad to hear about it.

10. Mrs Smart Mrs Smart is a teacher at this school and teaches year 5 students. Mrs Smart has been working at this school for 9 years and has been a teacher for 14 years. Mrs Smart was here when she was a child and said that there were 12 classrooms when she was younger.

11. Mrs Chamberlain Mrs Chamberlain was a pupil at Pukekohe Hill School. She has been teaching for 8 years and 3 of those have been at Pukekohe Hill School. She teaches a year 4 & 5 class. When she was here as a student she said that there were only 8 classrooms. She was a student here when the fire happened and said that she found it very exciting!

12. Humorous stories As I crouched down to help fasten the jacket of a new five year old, a little face peered into mine. “You’ve got wrinkles just like my Gran”, she said with a smile - an innocent remark, but so true. I especially enjoyed the children as they came in as new entrants, bright eyed and full of expectations. At 1:00pm on his first day of school, one little boy said, “but, I haven't learnt to read yet!” Ha Ha Ha!

13. Credits By: Eden, Connaugh, Karishma and Gabriel Helper: Mrs Ritchie Also thanks to all people who we interviewed – you were so much help.