School filled a gap in city for city prep education
Canon Higgs responded to parents’ pleas
Recently, I came across a reference to “the Christ Church School in Wanganui”, something I had never heard of. I tried to find some information within the Whanganui Regional Museum collection, without success, and so went to a man who knows so much about Whanganui — Richard Bourne, curator of Whanganui Collegiate School Museum.
Richard knew of it because his sister had attended the school, and he put me onto Gillian Corballis, ne´ e Higgs, who had strong connections there.
Gillian’s father, Canon James Higgs, the vicar of Christ Church in Whanganui, was instrumental in setting up the school. Because of a gap in preparatory education in the central area of Whanganui, there was a demand from parents for such a school.
A series of small private schools which included Mrs Ramsey’s in Wicksteed St, Miss Curry’s Clifton House in Victoria Ave and Miss
Craig’s St Albans in upper Victoria Ave, had previously filled this role.
Canon Higgs, with the backing of the Christ Church Vestry, set up a small school in a house nearby, once a vicarage, later a private house and then a dwelling for parish curates.
Canon Higgs operated with a strong belief that children should be educated in the Christian faith.
“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it”, was his maxim.
The Christ Church Preparatory School for Girls opened in in February 1949 with 55 pupils. Many of them came from the recently closed St Albans, as did much of the school furniture.
Also inherited from St Albans was the grey gym tunic, green cardigan and tie for girls, with a grey cotton dress for summer.
Although it was a girls’ school, several small boys were also enrolled, destined to attend St George’s School within a couple of years. A kindergarten opened at the same time in the Christ Church Hall, and many of the small attendees later went on to the school.
The school was constituted with a long list of requirements. It was managed by a school committee, consisting of the vicar of the parish and eight other members; two to be appointed by the Vestry annually, and the other six elected annually by parents of current pupils. The school was definitively a church school, and the vicar supervised religious classes.
The school grounds were tiny at first. Pupils used a section at the back to play in, and held their swimming and athletic competitions at St George’s. Mrs Vaughn McDonald, who owned the large house by the school on Wicksteed St — now the Christ Church administrative building — took down her fences so pupils could use her garden as a playground.
She left that land in her will for the use of the school. Mrs McDonald’s house was later purchased, and
Christ Church Preparatory School for Girls moved into it.
Gillian Higgs attended the school in 1950 and 1951.
She remembers the head teacher, Mrs Robinson, and several girls she was friendly with. After attending Nga Tawa Diocesan School in Marton as a boarder, she went to teachers’ college in Palmerston North and taught in various schools overseas.
After returning to Whanganui, she was persuaded to take on the role of head teacher at Christ Church Preparatory School, even though she was still very young and felt very inexperienced. She stayed in that role for a year, leaving at the end of 1962 when she married. As Gillian Corballis, she later taught for about 30 years at St George’s.