Double trouble times seven at school with tonnes of twins
Tikorangi School do not do things by halves.
From the current roll of 175 students, the small rural North Taranaki school has seven sets of twins enrolled.
Principal Paul Johnson said there had been a surprisingly large flow of twins joining the school, with five sets enrolling in the past two years.
Eight per cent of the school’s head count was now made up of twins and Johnson joked there could be ‘‘something’’ in the township’s water.
‘‘People have started to notice and make jokes about it,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s all been very lighthearted, like ‘what are you doing out there?’ And ‘that’s one way to protect your roll’.’’
But it isn’t the first small Taranaki town to boast a high number of twins.
In 2015, Omata School, less than
10km outside of New Plymouth, also had seven sets of twins enrolled.
In his 20 years as an educator Johnson said he had never come across such an extraordinary statistical oddity.
‘‘I came from a school of over
700 kids before this and we had several sets of twins but I don’t think we even would have had as many sets as we do now.
‘‘We haven’t looked into it that deeply but it does seem to be quite a thing.’’
Around one in every 89 births in New Zealand result in twins so statistically, Tikorangi School should have two sets.
Johnson said the biggest influx was last year when three pairs joined the school, and a further two this year bumped the twin cohort up to seven.
He said they were all treated as individuals and the school worked closely with parents who chose whether to have the children in the same class or separated.
Just like most siblings, the oldest twins, Kasey and Kurtis Gooch, 11, found many ways to annoy one another but also enjoyed always having a buddy around to play with.
‘‘It can be fun but most of the time it’s annoying,’’ Kasey said.
‘‘Sometimes we play board games and go on our motorbikes,’’ Kurtis said.
Another set, Olivia and Grace Ririkore, 7, have been known to indulge in a bit of classic twin tomfoolery.
‘‘Sometimes we play tricks on people,’’ Grace said.
‘‘People mix our names up and we like to dress up the same,’’ Olivia said.
Despite not missing one another when they were a part, the young girls agreed it was pretty special being a twin – especially since it meant they were part of an exclusive club.