Principal buys students’ togs

Teachers dipping into their own pockets tomeet children’s needs

Teachers and school leaders are dipping into their own pockets to make sure the incoming children of 2022 have the things they need, as the return to school looms.

At Linden School in Tawa, principal Gaylene Hill has been scouring op shops for togs and buying stationery for the families that can’t afford their own.

Her teachers would likely do the same.

‘‘Teachers are notorious for dipping into their own pockets.

‘‘We know that schools aren’t well-funded,’’ Hill said.

Linden School – a decile 4 school – was not unique, KidsCan chief executive and founder Julie Chapman said. Many of the 1000 schools the charity supported had similar stories.

‘‘As schools return, families are having to make heartbreaking choices, like whether to equip their children with the tools they need for learning or buy enough food for the week,’’ Chapman said.

At Linden School, the Government supplied lunches and KidsCan supplied morning tea for those who couldn’t bring their own. But Hill said poverty was still there.

She was checking her emails daily to help with the likes of food parcels for families struggling.

Three families contacted her over the summer break.

‘‘For some of the students, if we didn’t provide togs, they wouldn’t have them.’’

Daryl Aim, principal of Natone Park School in Porirua

‘‘I am really happy they reached out,’’ Hill said.

Adding to the unknown was a growing transience in the community, meaning the school had no true idea of how many children would arrive for the first day of school on February 1.

For students in poverty, ‘‘you’ve got to do everything you can to make it easy’’, Daryl Aim, principal of the decile 1 Natone Park School in Porirua, said.

Although Aim and his teachers have not dipped into their own pockets to support poorer students, his school relied on donations from the community to help kids.

‘‘For some of the students, if we didn’t provide togs, they wouldn’t have them.’’

Each year, Natone Park School received about 15 boxes of donated and new clothing from the Winter Project, run by Samuel Marsden College.

‘‘It’s amazing. They bring the boxes and we do a big fit out. You see the kids wearing those clothes all the time after that.’’

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF The Government supplies lunches for students who can’t afford them at Wellington’s Linden School, but principal Gaylene Hill says poverty is still there.