Generations of families keep Northland school traditions alive

Northland is a region with tight-knit communities, and it's often the schools that bring that to the forefront.

Close-knit communities are a core part of Northland and schools play a big role in that. Brodie Stone talks with families whose connections to local schools travel through generations.

Kaurihohore School: ‘I remember building huts and climbing trees’

Sarah Moon’s daughters are the seventh generation to live on the family property at Kaurihohore.

The family has a long-running connection to the local school, which opened in 1861.

Moon’s grandmother and four siblings went to the school in 1930s, helping to make up its roll of 25 students.

Moon herself fondly remembers mud runs, tree-climbing, folk dancing, learning the poi and there being just three teachers.

Her attendance was around the time the strap was being phased out, she said.

Moon’s two daughters also attended the school after Moon made an out-of-zone application.

They were based in Tikipunga at the time but moved back to their family land.

Her letter for the placement included old photographs illustrating the connection to the school.

The old Kaurihohore School which burned down. Sarah Moon's grandmother took this photograph.

She said it was her own positive experience that drew her back for her children’s sake.

“You know how Māori people talk about how they’ve got connections to the land and stuff, we kind of feel like we’ve got a connection to the land.

“My dad says it’s got mana, you know? I don’t know how to put it in Pākehā terms.”

Moon liked that the school was smaller and still had the roots of “free range” learning there and a connection with nature.

“I just remember building huts and climbing trees,” she said.

Totara Grove School: ‘It just feels like home’

Rachel Diamond’s daughter’s attendance at Totara Grove School marks the 60th year a member of her family has been on the school roll.

The 37-year-old said she, her sister, their cousins and her father all went to Totara Grove School.

“We’ve always been here,” she laughed.

More than 27 family members have attended the school over the past 60 years.

Diamond said the school felt like an “extended family”.

She formed lifelong friends with the teachers who taught her and are now teaching her daughter.

Diamond said the staff’s passion creates a special energy within the school where they have a bond that extends far beyond their primary school years.

“It’s the area but also just the teaching style. The teachers have always been like family so it’s always been easy to keep the kids there.”

Diamond also appreciates the school’s ability to encourage thinking and learning differently.

She credited the school’s strong connection to dance for the success of her two cousins, who performed with the Royal Family hip-hop group when they joined pop star Jennifer Lopez on stage.

Diamond said it would be strange for her family to attend school anywhere else.

Hine Diamond is the mother, grandmother and great grandmother to all the children who have attended totara grove. Pictured here with grandson Rōpata Diamond attending the school's 50th jubilee.

“It just feels like home, like an extended part of your house.”

Mangōnui School: ‘A special place to be as a kid’

Mangōnui School sits perched atop a hill overlooking the pristine harbour.

Josie Sutton is one of four generations with connections to the school.

Sutton began school there in 1988 when local history was at the forefront of learning and te reo Māori was spoken daily.

“Teachers were teaching and utilising te reo from the time I was 5. It was part of the culture of the school.”

One of the original Mangōnui School buildings, which is also a listed historic place, is still being used as a classroom.

The curriculum remains heavily localised to this day, something Sutton believes is important in smaller communities.

She watches her children growing up with a strong sense of place fostered through the school.

Seeing her children experience what she did has cemented the school as a place with its own wairua (spirit).

“I do think some schools have something special, and it’s been able to hold onto it and continue to foster it.”

Sutton is a presiding member of the school board and a former student, and her mother was heavily involved in the Parent Teacher Association.

Her daughter and son also both attend, and her grandfather had his own connection too.

Josie Sutton's children Amelie Powers and John John Powers standing in the entrance way to Mangōnui School when John John started school.

He lived just down the road from the school and would have students visit his beehives, where they were taught about the beekeeping process.

It was yet another example of how the school included the community in its student education, she said.

“It’s a special place to be a kid.”

Brodie Stone is an education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.