Hāwera’s new year 7-13 school opens with celebration and a challenge

Seven years after the first conversation about the future of education in South Taranaki, students and staff of Hāwera’s brand-new school have welcomed a crowd of guests and whānau on their first day.

Te Paepae o Aotea opened on Wednesday with a pōwhiri led by Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāruahine iwi, welcoming the new co-ed school and its community with speeches and songs.

Marquees with space for 2000 people were filled up, with students sitting on the ground surrounded by guests seated behind them and officials and dignitaries at the front.

The celebration marked the end of a long journey and the start of a new one for the 1050 students of the new year 7-13 school, which has replaced Hāwera Intermediate and High Schools, which both closed last year.

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“This is a very significant day for our community,” tumuaki Rachel Williams said, ahead of the opening.

“It’s pretty exciting seeing the crowd here today, just seeing the wonderful support from the community is amazing.”

During her speech she presented MP for Whanganui Steph Lewis with a small shovel to take back to Parliament “to remind them that they have done half the job in terms of opening the school, the other half is to come up with some building plans in a timely fashion.”

For the rest of this week, the students would be getting to know their teachers and building relationships within the school, before the normal timetable begins next week.

While the new school is officially open, the construction of new buildings that will see it move out of the former high school classrooms, is expected to take five years.

The name of the school, Te Paepae o Aotea, was gifted to it by Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui and Te Korowai o Ngāruahine in June last year as part of Matariki celebrations.

South Taranaki Mayor Phil Nixon said the opening celebration marked “the end of a long journey”.

“I really felt for both schools last year. It was not an easy year working towards an end, and there was so much disruption with the pandemic. It was pretty rough for them.

“We have come through with a new school in place, it’s exciting times. The important part of the learning has been brought together, the next stage is some new buildings.”

He was chair of the Hāwera High School board of trustees in 2016 when the idea of changing the town’s schooling was first mooted, as the community was facing rebuilds of Hāwera Intermediate after a fire in 2015, and the high school because of leaking buildings.

The initial discussion was shelved because a consensus wasn’t reached, but the Ministry of Education led a second round of consultation in 2019, and announced in November 2021 that a new school would replace the current ones.

Nixon thanked the ministry for its support in establishing the new school, but added a challenge, asking that it honour its commitment to have the school rebuilt in five years.

“We won’t have a fully built new school in five years, but I would like to see a good hunk of the school having new learning spaces in that time.”

But he was very pleased the new school had been launched first, so the new buildings could be designed to fit its needs.

“I’m just excited about the future of education here, what’s going to come out of this school, I think it is really great for our community.”