Milestone for Nelson city’s oldest school

Hampden Street School’s past and present have met to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary.

The oldest surviving pupil was greeted by the youngest current student, while the youngest teacher chatted with one of the oldest and well-loved teachers.

These days past pupil Cynthia Savage, 96 has swapped the playground for the comforts of Richmond’s Wensley House, where Iris Ashby, 5, sidled up to her in her arm chair.

Savage said she didn’t remember much from her school days but she could recall a boy in her classroom during the 1929 Murchison earthquake.

‘‘I remember Burton Newnham chasing me around the room to get out of the way when the earthquake came. He wanted to get me out ‘cos he thought everything was going to fall down on top of him so he was chasing people out.’’

Newnham went on to become ‘‘a jolly good teacher’’.

She said she was ‘‘never anything but good’’, before she recalled an issue with her long sleeves.

‘‘I was frowned upon because I had shirts with long sleeves. Oh you didn’t have long sleeves in New Zealand!’’

She said the teachers were ‘‘very disgusted with my mother because she wouldn’t chop [the sleeves]’’.

Past teacher, Harley Stokes now calls Kensington Court home. At 96, he’s still as sharp as his young counterpart, Chris Phillips, 23.

Stokes said he became a teacher because his three older sisters had careers in education.

‘‘So I went into teaching because in 1949 they had the pressure cooker course. Teaching used to be a two-year course and this was a one year course. So I went on to that.’’ Phillips’ story was very similar. He said his father taught, along with a lot of his aunties and uncles and he also did a one year compacted course after getting a degree.

The amount of pupils in each class hadn’t changed much since Stokes’ day but he said there was one big difference. ‘‘Now it’s all play.’’ Principal Don McLean said reaching 150 years was ‘‘quite a big mark’’ for the oldest school in Nelson city.

He said the school was organising a reunion in October.

The school’s progression over the years had including building a swimming pool during the war and moving from single sex classes to mixed.

McLean said children had more of a voice in the classroom now compared to the old days when they were ‘‘seen and not heard’’.

He said one key factor that had remained unchanged was the teachers’ relationships with the pupils.

‘‘Having a strong relationship with the kids in your class is actually something that goes back to the 1860s.

‘‘There’s some things that haven’t changed and there’s some things that have changed hugely.’’

* Interest can be registered for the Hampden Street School reunion at www.hampdenstreet.school.nz