It’s been a tough few years to be a teacher, and a student. Covid ravaged our schools - there’s been staffing issues, national attendance hitting record lows, and remote schools often have even more challenges.
In the Marlborough Sounds, one of New Zealand's most isolated schools has been made even more so by years of devastating storms.
The Waitaria Bay School roll amounts to just 16 children, the road there is filled with slips and potholes, and yet, somehow it isn’t just surviving, but thriving.
Principal Tineke Giddy has to wear multiple hats. She’s a teacher, pool attendant, and can be spotted on the rugby field at lunch time dishing out scores for the best kicks.
“I’ve been driving past this school for about 30 years, every summer. The job came up and it appealed and here I am," she laughs.
Tineke’s been teaching for over 30 years in schools all over the country, but she says the students at Waitaria Bay, aged 5-12, all taught in the same classroom have “put the sparkle back” into teaching.
“I love the kids….The community is amazing, the thing that impresses me the most I think is the lengths people go to, to bring their children here to school.”
People like the Rudkins, who drive their kids Quinn and Ava, as well as neighbours Phoenix and Coco to school via boat.
“It’s about an hour round trip for us. On the calm, lovely glassy days where Mum and Dad are like oh, this is lovely, the kids are like no, we want it rougher and the rougher the better,” mum Amanda Rudkin says.
Or like the Moletas, who have a two-hour return drive to drop their young kids off at pre-school.
“I grew up with correspondence school, home schooled and didn't have much social contact with other kids,” dad Braden Moleta says.
“Growing up it was almost a fear being in social situations, so I think it's important for the kids that they get that contact.”
Tineke says the tiny roll means no matter what’s happening at school, from rat trapping to swimming to beach clean-ups, all the kids gets a go.
“I knew every child in my last school. I knew them all by name. I knew their siblings, I make it my business to know, but this is different. This is really personalised learning.”
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