North Shore Times (New Zealand)
School pool to reopen after a decade
Primary school pupils at a south Auckland school will get experience in and around water from a young age, thanks to the work of 22 teenagers.
Prefects from Kristin School deliver a community project every year and deputy head girl Jessica Tucker says this year the prefects wanted to address water safety. They found Manurewa’s Homai School, where the pool has been empty for a decade.
‘‘There had been a lot of media coverage around increasing drowning rates and we wanted to work around kids and water safety,’’ Tucker says. ‘‘It’s taking advantage of the fact we’re in a very fortunate position and using that to help out other people.’’
Between a quiz night fundraiser in April and a mufti day, the group raised more than $40,000.
Deputy head boy Declan Marshall says the group contacted Homai School and formed a relationship with the principal.
‘‘We talked about what we were looking at doing and what they wanted us to do,’’ he says.
With the money and some elbow grease, the prefects fixed a broken filtration system, weeded and painted the changing rooms, and are waiting on warmer weather to paint and fill the pool before installing a cover and solar heating.
They aim to open the pool on December 1.
Kristin School students do community service projects throughout their schooling but Marshall says this one has been the most rewarding.
Homai School principal Rosina Wikaira says the project is amazing.
‘‘They [the prefects] are a godsend to our little school all the way in south Auckland,’’ Wikaira says. ‘‘I’m really big on aqua education and ensuring our children from as young as 2 or 3, because we have a childcare too, have the opportunity to learn how to swim and be safe around water.’’
Wikaira says the school has been trying to get the pool up and running for a while and it has been exciting seeing it transform.
Schools must pay for pool maintenance and repairs out of their own pocket and the Ministry of Education gives the same amount of operational funding to schools whether they have a pool or not. There is no ministry funding for building or replacing a school pool and a maintenance upgrade is generally a discretionary project with low priority.