Pūrākaunui School
One Waka. One Crew. Many Journeys.
2022
We celebrated the end of 2022 with a special Jubilee Assembly to celebrate our 150th anniversary as a school. It was fantastic to have such a good turn out, with several of our alumni in attendance. A special thank you to Betty Melville for baking and decorating our school's birthday cake, and Bob Melville and Loyal Harrison for cutting the cake, in keeping with the school tradition of the oldest and youngest persons present sharing the cutting.
On Tuesday December 6th we rewound the clock 150 years to the year 1972, to learn about life in the era our school first opened. It was a memorable day with our tamariki and kaiako "in role" for the day with costumes, desks sorted into traditional lines, no talking, fingernail and shoe inspections, lessons on technical drawing and sewing, and olden day games. Thank you to Sinead Jenkins for coming in to take some photos of the day!
We went to Port Chalmers School for an Artist in Residence day with Edith Amituanai. Our theme was our relationship to the Moana that surrounds us here in West Harbour. During the day we painted a banner to represent our kura and created sea themed props to take photographs with. We then participated in the art parade in Port Chalmers on the weekend with our banner and pictures.
We visited a sheep and beef farm near Toko Mouth, with transport funded by the South Otago Catchment Group. We enjoyed seeing the farm animals, learning about stream health on the farm, and planting the riparian area.
We walked down the road to the Pūrākaunui Estuary Causeway for another day of planting with Jeanne from the Halo Project, and then did an intrepid walk back to school through the farmland! It was a beautiful way to enjoy the beginning of spring.
It was great to see so many different community members in the audience at our Term 3 concert. We spent an intensive three days leading up to the concert learning about music with Anna Shaw and preparing our performances. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this fun evening!
Our seniors participated in the 3 Peaks Cross Country in Waikouaiti with other local schools, while the juniors had their own race here at school. We loved this opportunity to wear our snazzy new school sport shirts for the first time! A massive thank you to Otago Community Trust for funding these and to EmbroidMe for getting them ready in time for the event.
This year we have been working with the Halo Project and have planted about 200 trees at Long Beach.
On Wednesday June 22nd we enjoyed a celebration at school with the community. It was absolutely magical to be in the dark celebrating Matariki with everyone. Check out the photos of our new stage, our lantern parade and some shared kai.
Email Address
office@purakaunui.school.nz
principal@purakaunui.school.nz
Phone Number
022 414 6351
Address
8 Mihiwaka Station Road
Purakaunui
RD1 Port Chalmers
New Zealand