PROGRAMME OUTLINED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 90, 24 June 1946, Page 4

PROGRAMME OUTLINED

DISTRICT'S EDUCATIONAL j - NEEDS'. . : -" J. j BOARD MEMBERS' VISIT At the meeting of the Whakatane School Committee which took place last Wednesday evening, the Chairman, Mr J. W. Wilson, reported on the recent visit to Whakatane of members of the Auckland Education Board in the persons of the Chairman, Mr Hamilton, the Vice-chairman, Mr Burns, and the Architect, Mr Miller, together with Mr Merrington, Senior Inspector of Schools, which took place recently. A conference, the chairman said, between the Board and School Committee members had taken place in the evening, when the need to open the Ohope side school immediately had been impressed upon the chairman. The main reason attaching to the urgency of the matter was that some 20 or 30 children had not been attending school through lack of transport. The following day, a visit had been paid to Ohope Beach to inspect the building available, and this had met with approval, with the result that the school was opened the following Monday. Large Scale Programme The site which had been selected by the committee for a future permanent school at Ohope was also inspected, and the visiting members agreed that it was ideal. The.case put by the committee had received a very sympathetic hearing and the Board representatives' in turn had put up a proposition. This included the following points: (1) That a primary school site should be acquired in the district, and school to contain classes up to Standard 4 be erected. This would relieve the present Infant School. (2) That the present High School site become that of an intermedate school. (3) When the attendance at the High School should reach the 300 mark, that it become a High School proper with Intermediate attached. "..-.■ If this scheme were brought to iruition, the chairman said, Whakatane would possess a primary school at Ohope, a primary school at Whakatane, an intermediate school at Whakatane, and when the numbers warranted the extension, a high school with an intermediate school attached. Well Equipped The inspecting members, he continued, made of the fact that the Whakatane School was particularly well appointed as regards amenities.

A further decision was to. shift the present manual and technical training school to a site on the western side of the school ground, leaving room for the new domestic science block. At the request of the committee, the architect had produced another plan for a building on a much better scale than the previous one, and it had been entirely satisfactory to the committee. The present technical school, the chairman concluded, would be devoted to training in woodwork and metal work.