Tūātapere School, District History - brief notes of the school history.

Shared by Central & Western Murihiku Southland Archive

Tūātapere School, District History - brief notes of the school history. Image - Tūātapere school, two teachers and 44 pupils, during the war years. Photo is in the Public Domain. Tūātapere School: In 1909 the Southland Education Board visited the Western Districts, to determine if a school should be built at Tūātapere. They wished to ascertain the number of children in the district who had not yet started at school and the likely population increase in the coming years. In 1910 the site for a school had been reserved and Mr Hugh McFeely, was first appointed Head Master. He was to become a pillar of the small community, being involved in many of their affairs over the next decade and beyond. More on Hugh McFeely can be seen elsewhere online here. Early school classes were held in the Cymric Hall, owned and built by John Davies. On the first day of school, 16 children registered. Their surnames included: Howarth; Coughlan; Rask; McLean; Sneyd; Fitzgerald; Gray; Mills; and Purdue. See entry CWA.012.033.002 in these community archives for a full list of first day pupil names. However, when noise from the Billiard Room, attached to the hall, proved a distraction to the children, the school classes were transferred to the newly-built Methodist Church, until the roll outgrew the hall space. It was in May 1913 that the official opening date was published, and this recorded that on 19 June 1913, the first dedicated school building in the township would be finally opened. News items later said this was a 'gala like' event day for Tūātapere. All the while, the school roll continued to grow as more and more families moved to the district. When the numbers of students reached 56 in 1916, a second classroom was built, although the school had been agitating for this extension since 1914, just a year after the original school had been built. It was said that the school was getting very overcrowed so a new room was built, and after the opening of the extension, Miss Sybil Wilson from Orepuki was appointed Infant Mistress in place of Miss Erwin. With Hugh McFeely having left to join the armed forces, his relieving teacher was Mr McKenzie for those two years. On his return, another teacher Miss Kate Cameron had been appointed. But because of lack of accommodation for the students, the Presbyterian Church Sunday School Room was rented for Miss Cameron and her class. When long-term and first ever head teacher Hugh McFeely left in 1922 to take up another position elsewhere, Mr Higgins then became principal. Due to continued growth in the local and district communities, as well as changes to the rules for entry into secondary schools, Tūātapere School was changed to Tūātapere District High in 1945, and under this name, was said to have been accommodating both primary and secondary students. It soon after changed it's name to Waiau District High School. In 1953 a new school was built, and this had, amongst other things, new offices, staff toilets, new heating, and a medical room. In 1957 a manual department was built in the old secondary rooms. Further extensions happened in 1959 and 1964. A pool and playing grounds also appeared along the way. Does anyone know exactly when these items were built? Then, in 1977 the school was to separate, with the high school staying in the old buildings and the primary moving to newly built buildings nearby. It was in 1978 that the first year of the separate schools were in operation. In 2002, Waiau College and Tūātapere Primary School were once again merged back together,to create the Tūātapere Community College. In 2012 it was again renamed, this time to Waiau Area School (WAS), and it continues as a co-educational composite school under this name in 2024. Note from CWA researcher Pam: the bulk of school records are held by Invercargill City Library archives. Further Note from Community Archive: We also have lists of these school records from the Tūātapere District at our Heritage Hub, so no need to travel to view them unless you want to. At some later point we may be able to put these class lists up in the archive online, if someone can volunteer to do this please. Special note is made of the usefulness of the book, 'Up The Waiau, the story of four schools.' by Gordon McLeod, which we have consulted widely for this historical entry. Also used, was Des Williams Tūātapere Centennial Review, titled 'The Hole in the Bush', both provide photos. Hopefully this entry will be added to as more information comes to hand. If you or anyone you know has any more information or photos to share or accounts of Tūātapere School during the years, please do share this with us in the comments section. You can do this by making a comment in the space provided under the image page. Or you can make contact with us as per the archive front page.