Students involved in school spruce-up

All tooled up and ready to help fixing their picnic tables are Cobham School students, from left, RJ Temaru, Steven Tatafu, Aorangi Tiopira, Tangira and Kasanita Tatafu with Paul Cornwall, relieving principal, back left and Stan Scott from Mitre 10.Picture by Rebecca Grunwell

Creating a nicer environment for the kids is what Cobham School relieving principal Paul Cornwall had in mind  when he asked students to write him a letter. Mr Cornwall asked two classes to let him know what they wanted done to make improvements around the school.

He took on board requests for flowers, and daffodils were planted. Another suggestion was to restore the tops of the school’s barbecue table.

Bringing in builder Stan Scott, a presenter on YouTube for Mitre 10 DIY videos, Mr Cornwall was assured the job would get done well.  “That meant that at least one of us knew what we were doing!” he said.

“If you get the kids involved in doing it, they then own it and they look after it.  It was a good exercise — some maths involved in measuring up, that kind of thing, and letter writing.”  The students followed up with thank you letters to Mr Scott.