Pranksters put school up for sale
Timaru Girls’ High School principal Sarah Davis was able to see the funny side of a prank played on the school by some of its students.
Anyone looking to buy a school may have thought they were in luck yesterday, with Timaru Girls’ High School listed for sale on Trade Me.
But anyone looking to make a bid on the 138-year-old school was out of luck – the listing was a prank by some year-13 students as part of their finishing school celebrations.
‘‘We thought it was done very well,’’ Davis said. ‘‘I think we like the fact in some ways they celebrated the school, and talked about it in such a positive way. It was actually very clever. To be honest I had no idea that any of the signs had been up in the school.’’
Half-a-dozen leavers – Amelia O’Connor, Meg Stickings Lily Bolland, Abbey Clark, Emily Bell, and Laura Seyb – were the masterminds behind the prank.
A for sale sign was also erected in front of the grounds about 7am. The buy now price was a low ball $400 yesterday morning but was upped to $5000 later. By early afternoon the listing was removed from Trade Me.
‘‘The wonderful class of 2018 will be vacating the premises on Wednesday the 31st of October,’’ the Trade Me listing said.
‘‘As the property is no longer of use to us, we feel it would be in our interest to sell the prime location.
‘‘This character home is just waiting for a potential buyer to walk in and join the culture that is Timaru Girls’ High School.’’
Bolland said traditionally year-13 students play pranks on another school or their own as part of leaving celebrations.
‘‘We’ve had a bit of trouble in the past years – sometimes taking it a wee bit too far, but we wanted to do something light-hearted that even the teachers would enjoy,’’ she said.