Cyclone-hit Ōmāhu School celebrates new classrooms with blessing

• Ōmāhu School’s new classrooms have been blessed after Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed most of its buildings.
• Principal Kate Crawford emphasised the school’s role as a community hub and welcomed the new facilities.
• Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst highlighted the rebuild’s focus on resilience and the future of the students.

A Hawke’s Bay school reduced to operating classes out of one small building after being devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle has had its new classrooms blessed ahead of the start of the school year.

Ōmāhu School had most of its classrooms and premises washed away when the cyclone hit in February 2023. One building, built more than 125 years ago, and the school pool, filled with silt, were the only structures left standing after the water receded.

Students were shifted into the Irongate School gymnasium in Flaxmere while the clean-up commenced. The school was then told in May 2023 by the Ministry of Education that the rebuild could take up to three years.

However, at the start of term one 2024 students returned to the school, all filing into the one building.

Now, new classrooms stand tall on the land offering pupils a place “they can call home”, says principal Kate Crawford.

About 100 people gathered before sunrise on Friday to witness the blessing of the new buildings before the year starts on Monday. Crawford said that will be the true highlight for her.

“I can’t wait to see the look in their eyes when they walk through the gate and they see their new class,” she said.

“But I really want our kura to be a place where all of our community come to.

“I want our whānau to be able to come in here and enjoy it – play basketball, play touch rugby, league, or whatever - so it becomes the hub of our community again.”

The new classrooms at Ōmāhu School. Photo / Jack Riddell

As of Friday morning, the Ōmāhu School roll sat at 54, but Crawford was hoping for more enrolments in the next week.

“Last year we had 54 as well and we were in one classroom ... our tamariki won’t know themselves when we’ve got three big classrooms,” she said.

Crawford said new entrants would still start school in the original 1899 building.

“I just think, how perfect is that – they’ll be nurtured by the oldest building in the school,” she said.

“Between these walls is their whānau.”

From left: Hastings councillor Heather Te Au-Skipworth, Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, principal Kate Crawford, and Hastings councillors Kellie Jessup and Ana Apatu at the blessing of the new Ōmāhu School classrooms. Photo / Jack Riddell

Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst attended the blessing and said the rebuild was about “our tamariki” and “their futures”.

“This is a beautiful kura, purpose-built for resilience, and it’s raised high which is wonderful,” Mayor Hazlehurst said.

“To actually have purpose-built classrooms, some normality – this is about our recovery and our rebuild and it’s a wonderful blessing this morning, to bring all of our Ōmāhu community together and celebrate their kura.”

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.