A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 11, 14 August 1946, Page 6

A SUCCESSFUL VENTURE

SCHOOL POULTRY FARM NATIVE MASTER’S ENTERPRISE One of the most outstanding achievements as far as Native School instruction is concerned is the successful culture of poultry at the Waioliou School, where Mr and Mrs Raymond Judd have established a thriving school industry for the benefit of the pupils. The poultry farm section is a neatly arrayed group of houses and runs on the lower grass level west of , the school house. The whole venture has been crowned with unqualified success, and pupils, who have been given the responsibility of looking after the run have themselves, in one or two instances, become enthusiasts and have started their own private ventures.

Six years ago, this project began to develop as one part of a scheme to provide a number of practical centres of interest in the school. The school poultry farm has never been regarded as a special “club,” but as a normal department of the school’s work, one of a number of practical cores around which the work of the classroom is built. These include, among others, the poultry farm, the agricultural course, the dairy science course, the afforestation work, the domestic course for girls in their model kitchen, and the Boy Scouts and Girl Guide troops. Practical Application

The aim is to give a practical basis and a vital purpose to the academic work of the classroom, to provide real-life problems for discussion and solution, and to link the classroom with the life of the community around it. Such “centres of interest” provide problems of mutual concern for both teacher and pupil, and make the school, not only a place of class-room learning, but also a- series of absorbing activities built on practical outdoor observation and personal interest. In working out a practical scheme based on a series of practical “cores” several projects of particular interest to the boys of the school were considered, but the formation of a small poultry farm was decided upon for the following reasons: (1) Children are naturally attracted to and interested in hens and chicks, ducks and ducklings; (2) the whole cycle of life is easily observed in poultry; (3) the results of good feeding, good breeding, and careful nurture, are kept constantly before the pupils; (4) a poultry farm occupies small space, and is easily cared for, but needs the daily attention that maintains interest; (5) poultry-keeping, unlike larger projects such as a model dairy farm, does not require the children to undertake at school practical work which may already have become tedious to them at home; (6) a community need is fulfilled by the introduction of improved stock; (7) school requirements are fulfilled in the provision of a constant food supply for the model kitchen, where daily lunches are provided; (8) a poultry farm provides opportunities for continued handwork—carpentry, painting, concrete work etc., —the value of which is obvious'; (9) a source of steady income for the school funds is provided; (10) a poultry farm is linked with the school’s agricultural work, each providing the other with valuable products.

Founding of Scheme

Records show that the poultry farm was inaugurated in November 1938, when a plan submitted to the Department was approved, and a grant of £2O made to cover the initial cost of buildings and runs. During the early months of 1939, plans were completed in drawing periods, and estimates and costs were worked out as arithmetic projects. The actual building provided the senior boys with several months’ intensive carpentry, in the. course of which, many problems were tackled and overcome. Operations actually commenced in the spring of 1939, with the purchase of one dozen wellbred White Leghorn hens, and one dozen Black Orpingtons. Since then, the work has been uneventful, but always interesting. Original stock has been continually improved both by outside purchases, and by selective breeding, and the variety of the, breeds has been increased from year to year as funds allowed. The school now has five breeds of hen, as well as ducks. The one original pen has grown to six, and further additions are pending. The pupils have evolved and used with varying success, many types of perches, nest-boxes, trap-doors, broody-coops water tins etc., all of which have involved discussion, planning, drawing and handwork. The success of

the poultry farm can best be measured not only in the annual credit balance, but in the individual and group ability shown in handling the diverse problems that any such practical object must present. (To be continued)