Labour weekend marks the celebration of Takapuna Grammar School’s 90th birthday and the school is looking forward to hosting up to 800 ex-pupils for a range of events.
Takapuna Grammar School (TGS) opened at the beginning of the school year in 1927, uncompleted and without any official ceremony, with a complement of 218 pupils (118 boys and 100 girls) and eight teachers, including the Headmaster, Mr C.M. Littlejohn. It was the first co-educational institution of its kind, and TGS was the fifth school under the Auckland School Board's jurisdiction.
A small committee is organising the reunion, which kicks off on the Friday of Labour weekend (October 20th) with a special high tea for pupils who attended and left school before 1950, followed by a mihi whakatau and afternoon tea in the newly refurbished assembly hall which will be handed over to the school on the 14th of October to fit in with the 90th reunion. A drinks reception (with cash bar and platter food service) takes over the hall and some classrooms during the evening for all attendees.
One of the guests of honour at the Friday afternoon high tea will be Rotha Barton. At 101, she’s the school's oldest known ex-pupil. She remembers starting at TGS when she was 13 and the school was just three years old. She attended for two years until an operation and long recuperation brought her school days to an end.
Rotha considers herself lucky to have had the time at Takapuna Grammar (it was the start of the Depression and not everyone attended secondary school). This is despite the fact that, compared with her time at Takapuna Primary, “it was all lessons”. Perhaps not all lessons though; she played cricket, and recalls her mother’s reaction when one teacher took the girls for exercises in a “shelter shed”. They had to lie on the floor and her mother was most displeased when she returned home with her nicely ironed and pleated uniform all crumpled and dusty.
She remembers Mr Littlejohn as a popular headmaster, but also remembers the segregated playground: “We girls were shoved at the back”, and not allowed to speak to the boys.
On Saturday 21st October, ex-pupils can enjoy school tours, not just of the physical premises (which will no doubt impress pupils who haven’t visited the school in some time), but also get some insights into the modern education environment. Current students will be demonstrating learning in the performing arts, technology, science, English, mathematics, social sciences, physical education, languages and business and enterprise. Attendees will then line up for decade photos, and, most importantly perhaps, the opportunity to catch up with contemporaries. The day concludes with a buffet dinner at QBE Stadium.
On Sunday 22nd (with organisers no doubt wishing they could also organise the weather), there’s a rowing race followed by breakfast at Bayswater Marina, a thanksgiving service at the school hall led by ex-pupil and retired bishop Richard Randerson, musical items, then a sports showcase pitting current pupils against past pupils in hockey, netball, soccer, cricket and rugby.
Chairperson of the organising committee, Linda McKay, confesses to “completing a hat trick, as I have now chaired three reunion committees: my primary (Stanley Bay School centennial in 2009), intermediate (Belmont Intermediate in 2007) and now TGS.”
“We started work on this more than two years ago,” she says. “There is a small team, all ex-pupils, working with the school to make this happen. The school is driving the open day and managing the Friday celebrations, thanksgiving and sports activities. All our catering is being supplied by the PTA and school tuck shop."
About five weeks out from the event, the committee had received more than 550 registrations: 19 from the 1930s and 1940s, 104 from the 1950s, 128 from the 1960s, 103 from the 1970s, 113 from the 1980s and 43 from the 1990s to the present. Linda says people are coming from as far afield as the United Kingdom and United States, as well as Samoa, Fiji and Australia, as well as from all over New Zealand.
“We’re hoping that everyone coming will be able to connect with friends from their days at TGS,” says Linda, adding that the reason for having a 90th celebration is also to collect as many stories, memories, photos and information as possible in the lead-up to the centenary in a decade’s time.
Full details of the reunion programme, and online registraton, are at www.takapuna.school.nz
