Tūātapere School, District History - brief notes of transition to High School

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Central & Western Murihiku Southland Archive

Tūātapere School, District History, brief notes of transition to High School. The images are of the Tūātapere Primary School, taken 1951, before the new school was built on site. These were taken off photographs on the wall at the 100 year Centennial in 2010 & donated by Margaret Thomas. Waiau District High School notes: Before becoming a District High School in 1945, the Tūātapere school was primary only. Early classes had been taken in certain town buildings from 1910. The school started off as a single classroom in 1913, built to the same standard plan as all the other Southland Education Board schools in the district. This is why all of the Education Board schools looked the same. However some remained single classroom schools, like the earlier Te Tua one and Otahu Flat, whereas the one at Tūātapere was extended many times. By 1916 a second classroom had been built on to it. And from there, the extensions continued, until it looked like it did in the photos above, taken in 1951. This looked much different to how it started! The extensions shown above can be compared to the original schoolhouse (the old term for school), seen in these community archives, under entry no: CWA.012.033.001.1 To be fair, many early settlers sent their children off to primary education only, even if secondary education was available, as the older children were needed on the farm or in the bush, to help provide for their often large and struggling families. Later on the law changed regarding this and from 1944 on, children were required to remain at school until the age of 15. By 1944, the need for a local district high school was evident, especially due to growth in the community. Pupils had been having to travel into Invercargill for secondary education, which was time consuming and expensive. At the time there were 41 students in high school, elsewhere, from the district. Other factors were the Proficiency Examination for entry into high school being abolished in 1937, and with the school leaving age increasing, these all created a need for more secondary schooling. And so, the Waiau District High School was established in 1945 with Mr MP Lyng succeeding AP McDonald as principal. At first there were just two box classrooms, transported from other closed schools. Due to lack of room, classes were also held in the Buffalo Hall. Available subjects, such as, agriculture, homecraft, clothing and commercial studies, were featured alongside core subjects. There were cooking classes for the girls and woodwork and metalwork for the boys. There were also no staff toilets or staffroom. Over time, other new buildings from closed down primary schools in the district were bought on site to accommodate its growth. In 1953, buildings were constructed for the new school, with offices, staff toilets, new heating, and a medical room. The official opening 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. The big school rivalry was between Waiau and Riverton, especially with rugby and basketball. Other school events included socials, music festivals, the Spring Flower Show, debutante balls, and then the fundraising drives. Tūātapere also played the other primary schools in the district, with fierce loyalties developing between them in various sports, which can be read about in the news of the day. Some of this is quite hilarious. 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.