BY MARTIN LEACH - PONSONBY NEWS SEPTEMBER 2006

 

 

As you age time seems to go by far too quickly and right now the year 2025 seems like a long way off. But in that year a time capsule will be opened at Richmond Road School and future generations will get a glimpse of school life as well as life in general in 2005 containing a number of items both pupils and teachers felt were important today.

Acting Principal Donal McLean and his team held a ceremony for the storing of the time capsule which represented an item from each ‘ropu’ (area of the school) with instructions that it was not to be opened for the next twenty years. The time capsule idea came about as a celebration following the renovation of part of the school. Local resident Judith Tizard in her capacity as Minister for Auckland Issues took part in the ribbon cutting ceremony recently followed by singing from the pupils and staff. As she said,  "It is always a pleasure visiting Richmond Road School, to celebrate its successes with such a wonderfully supportive community its vibrant multiculturalism, diversity and culture of tolerance and respect for all cultural groups
should be promoted and celebrated”.

The entire ceremony was recorded on video and the items, which included tapa cloth, Maori weaving, jewellery, the video tape along with Judith’s speech and a copy of Labour’s Educational priorities and achievements were placed into the school’s attic by Menzies, one of the pupils.

Richmond Road School with its 340 pupil roll (one of 22 bi-lingual schools in Auckland) first opened in 1884 and today is a vibrant multicultural state primary school in the heart of the Ponsonby/Grey Lynn area. The school gained international recognition in the 1960’s for its innovative work in literacy education and pupils today have a choice of learning lessons in English, French, Maori and Samoan. Clearly this places a fair bit of pressure on both funding and staffing and as Donal says, “it does create a double work load preparing lessons in two languages but does allows local families’children to learn in their own language and culture and the school works closely with pupils, families and colleagues to create a strong partnership.” 

As Judith Tizard comments, "to fulfil our potential, we have to strive for excellence.  For this, we need families that are engaged in their children's education, outstanding teachers that get excellent outcomes, and schools with the leadership and resources to make that focus on excellence possible.  These are Labour's priorities. I certainly believe that Richmond Road Primary School will continue to serve its children, teachers, and community well into the future."

Under the Labour Government there are now a further 3,000 extra teachers in our classrooms throughout New Zealand and in smaller classes. Every school now has high-speed internet access which keeps pupils in touch with information and learning. The 2005 budget has funding for early childhood education which will have increased by over $400 million since 1999, an increase of over 140%.

How will the future generation know about the existence of Richmond Road School’s time capsule? Recording the whereabouts of time capsule is very important, as many capsules in the past have been lost in the past, due to poor record keeping (who will know where you have placed your time capsule twenty years from now?) Richmond Road School have a diary system in place and The International Time Capsule Society in Atlanta, USA provides a registry of time capsules around the world to make sure that they are properly recorded.