Carncot School kicks off year of celebrations to mark 120 years

A Palmerston North school has gone back to where it all began to kick off celebrations for its 120th year.

Carncot Independent School is marking its 120th year this year and has a reunion event on Labour Weekend, as well as activities throughout the year.

It started on Tuesday, the first school day of the year, with children gathering at the school’s original site and taking part in a picnic and activities. They were given a morning tea by the Verdict Cafe.

Carncot started in 1903 in a classroom above what was then William Park’s bookshop, in Te Marae o Hine/The Square, what is now a Lone Star restaurant.

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The children were also given a history tour around The Square by Rangitāne’s Nuwyne Te Awe Awe, played games and also visited Te Manawa to learn about history.

Principal Owen Arnst said it was fitting they returned to where the school started and it was refreshing to reflect on the past.

Carncot has had five different sites, including Ngata and Princess streets, before moving to its current location in the old Fitzherbert homestead on Broadway Ave in 1955.

Before that it had been across the road at what is now a Countdown supermarket.

This week the school welcomed 18 new children to start the term and has a roll of 134 pupils, which should grow to 150 by the end of the year. It is the highest the roll has been since the 1980s.

Carncot had been a girls’ school, but became coed in 2012 and now 45% of its roll was boys.

There is also a mayoral party at school on Wednesday morning where mayor Grant Smith will hand out 120th commemorative badges to pupils.

The school’s alumni are being invited back for the Labour Weekend reunion.