The big kid, Jacob Heyward, arrives at school as a new teacher, 20 years after starting as a pupil. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
The big kid, Jacob Heyward, arrives at school as a new teacher, 20 years after starting as a pupil. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
It was second time around for Jacob Heyward as he started the new school year at Haumoana School on Monday.
Taking him along for the big day was father Andy "King Andy" Heyward, just as he did when Jacob first went to the school 20 years ago - barefoot.
Among the changes was that Jacob was then a first day pupil aged 5. Now he's a teacher, aged 25.
The day back in 2000, the first day at Haumoana School in the new millennium, wasn't that memorable, but he says: "I do remember walking in with all this healthy food."
Jacob Heyward in his own early days at Haumoana School, where he started as a pupil in 2000. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
The healthy cut lunch remained a feature this week, albeit with a bit more input from the wide-eyed repeat new-entrant, who adapted quickly to the new surroundings, bereft of any of the nervousness that might have prevailed as he first dipped the toes into the waters of the educational institution so many years ago.
He has a class of 25, and described day one as "wonderful, really hot, but it was lovely". In the between years he had, among other things, gone to Havelock North High School, done the big OE, and trained at Otago Teachers' College, and he said: "It was a few years since I'd been in class."
In a class of his own...new teacher Jacob Heyward gets to meet the pupils, with a touch of nostalgia harking back to his own days on the at Haumoana School. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
There hadn't always been an ambition to be a teacher, but there was a background. Father Andy, who also got the chance to sneak back into the classroom to capture the moment on his phone camera, was once the compiler of a very educational and popular yet zany Hawke's Bay Today kids' page.
He's been a fixture in the Haumoana community for years, gravitating into such things as running the local Haumoana Men's Knitting Club,and the Goat Appreciation Society.
