Tūātapere School, District History - Photos of Past Staff

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Central & Western Murihiku Southland Archive

Tūātapere School, District History - Photos of Past Staff: These images are of the Tūātapere School Staff over the years. We believe the photographs were on the wall at the 100 year Centennial in 2010. We have no idea at all when this was compiled or from what, but we believe it was created for the Centennial. And we suspect that teachers faces were cut from class photos over the years, to make the compilation of previous staff, shown in above photo. Donated by Margaret Thomas. We would like to compile a brief history of all the above teachers, or more if their families and older townspeople can provide this. The only ones we have any significant information on so far, are Mr Garrett (Malcolm) and Mrs Tillard (Frances). These will form entries of their own in due course. Can you help us out with any of the others? And please inform us if there are any spelling mistakes with the names. A family member of one teacher has already pointed out an error, which we are thankful for. TEACHERS FROM THE PHOTO J Bickley B Jefferson (Bernard Joseph Jefferson) - husband of Margaret Jefferson: "Bernie" was a Returned Serviceman, who had been to Canada with the Air Force in WW2. The children in his class would try to divert his topic of conversation towards telling them war stories instead of school lessons! Bernard died on the 16th of January 1993, aged 80 years. W Keating J Davies I Bickley W Mellon R Bloomfield (Robin) B Smith M Garrett (Malcolm): Malcolm was not only a teacher, but an avid historian. He collated many historical facts and family histories while in Tūātapere, and these are now thankfully deposited at the Community Archive Heritage Hub for all to access. He was alive from 1937-2020 and was the loved husband of Betty. The couple had at least four children. Malcolm was also a local theatre enthusiast acting in shows, along with Dr Elder and others. M Jefferson (Margaret) - wife of Bernard Joseph Jefferson: Margaret G Jefferson (nee Robertson), was a keen amateur theatre actor and her students remember her acting in shows at the RSA Hall. She was said to be a real sweetie. She died on the 12th of June 1996, aged 80. J Marshall R Riseley E Rozburgh G King J Clarke J Parsons J Hampton B Walker M Boyle J Powell T Clark (Tom) Principal of Northern Southland College for some years. P Burt C O'Brien (Cissie) J Gowlett D Bryan D Memphis F Tillard (Frances) Teacher at Rowallan, Te Tua then Tūātapere schools. She and husband Frank had 5 children, some also became teachers. Frances was ahead of her time in believing that education was for everyone, she fought for these rights, and was well remembered at the Dept. Of Education for appealing to them to improve local education. Frances died in 1992. J Walker Brief School History: The Tūātapere school began as primary only. Early classes had been taken in certain town buildings from 1910. The school started off as a single classroom in 1913. By 1916 a second classroom had been built on to it. And from there, the extensions continued. A new school was built in 1953 but it is not yet clear if the old school continued to be used still. The official opening for this new school was on 7 October 1953. In 1957 a manual department was built in the old secondary rooms. Further extensions happened in 1959 and 1964. A learners pool (we think in the late 50's) & playing grounds also appeared, but we are not sure when. In 1977 the Tūātapere school split again, with Forms I-VII staying in the District High School, and primary level heading to the new buildings near by. The new high school was called Waiau College. In 2002, Waiau College and Tuatapere Primary School merged back together again, to create the Tuatapere Community College. In 2012 the school was once again renamed, this time to Waiau Area School, and it continues as a co-educational composite school, under this name in 2019. The widely used acronym for the school is WAS. And the Principal there is currently (2024) Andrew Pardoe-Burnett, most commonly referred to as "PB". Note from CWA researcher Pam: the bulk of school records are held by Invercargill City Library archives. Further Note from Community Archive: We also have lists of these school records from the Tūātapere District at our Heritage Hub, so no need to travel to view them unless you want to. At some later point we may be able to put these class lists up in the archive online, if someone can volunteer to do this please. Special note is made of the usefulness of the book, 'Up The Waiau, the story of four schools.' by Gordon McLeod, which we have consulted widely for this historical entry. Also used, was Des Williams Tūātapere Centennial Review, titled 'The Hole in the Bush', both provide photos. Hopefully this entry will be added to as more information comes to hand. If you or anyone you know has any more information or photos to share or accounts of Tūātapere School during the years, please do share this with us in the comments section. You can do this by making a comment in the space provided under the image page. Or you can make contact with us as per the archive front page.