Konini School is a co-educational state public primary school located in the West Auckland suburb of Konini, New Zealand. Established in 1976, the school educates year 1–6 students and has an enrolment zone in place. The school is situated in the foothills of the Waitākere Ranges on an 8.5-hectare site, of which more than half is a bush reserve, a stream and a waterfall with rock faces that house glow worms. This has meant that students are provided with onsite learning experiences that have shaped the curriculum and resulted in projects to maintain the environment. The school has collaborated with the local community and Auckland Council to support these programmes and develop amenities and facilities.
Early history The school opened on 24 May 1976 and stands on what was previously a farmlet, called Pinehurst, owned by Walter Jowitt until he died in 1953. The property was originally an orchard with several paddocks for dairy cows, shelter belts of pine trees and a macrocarpa, which remains on the property and is known as the "story tree". When the school opened it had less than its planned roll, said to be because the construction of a nearby housing estate was behind schedule, the opening being in the middle of the year and apprehension about the 'open plan' of the school. The founding members of the staff were J.I. West (Principal), P. Buffett (Deputy Principal), Mrs Neill, Mrs Noakes, Mr Stacey, Mrs Greenway, Mrs Smith and Mrs Daley. In the first newsletter for parents, the principal said that the semi-open structure of the school [combined]... "the best of the conventional older type schools with the latest in architectural design and equipment". He explained that Konini was "designed on the basis of eight interlocking classrooms, each with specially designed entrances tiled, to double as art and craft areas joining the carpeted teaching rooms". West had earlier told the Western Leader that the plan "had several advantages...[and]...the fact that there are no divisions between every two classrooms, means that children are not artificially penned in, while an experienced teacher may aid a less experienced teacher in an adjoining classroom".
The school held its first gala in March 1977. It was noted that some of the attractions for the day could include hot rod cars, the local Fire Brigade, parachuting, model aeroplanes, gymnastics, a display of cars and bikes and the pony club.
At the inaugural meeting of the Parent Teachers Association (P.T.A) held on 21 June 1977, R. Pirovich was elected as president and a Wine & Cheese evening was confirmed for 20 July. Other items discussed included a Guy Fawkes evening, an athletics day and a project to work on the front garden.
The school appointed a librarian in 1978 and held its first school camp in that year.
In 1979 the New Zealand Woman's Weekly published an article on whether or not children were coming to school well-nourished. While there was some debate about this, the principal of Konini School said in the article that each week they purchased oranges directly from orchards as an "extra service to parents...and if their children forget their lunches, we can let them have oranges".
Principals West was followed as principal by Jack Gledhill who remained in that position until 1986. Judy Bock took over in 1987 and was principal until Ralph Mayn was appointed in January 1997. Mayn retired at the end of 2000 and was acknowledged for the work he had done with the local principals' association, and by Jan Peach, the chair of the Board of Trustees, for challenging the school with his ideas, [achieving]... "in four years what most would have done in 10".
Prior to a teaching career of almost 40 years, including a previous post as principal at Dunedin North Intermediate school, Barry Hambleton was appointed as principal at Konini School in 2001. He brought particular interests in information technology, literacy and numeracy and was also involved in developing the health and physical education learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum. Hambleton was an executive member of the New Zealand Principals Federation and noted that due to the changes in education at the time following implementations of the recommendations of the Picot task force, this umbrella body provided key support for principals to manage this process. He later expressed concern about how a change in government policy at the time to reduce junior class numbers would impact staffing numbers.
Michael Malins was principal from 2011 until the end of term 2, 2016, when he was succeeded by Andrew Ducat, who as of June 2022, remains in that position.
The school celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2001 and present was the principal at the time, Barry Hambelton and his predecessors Jack Gledhill, Judy Bock and Ralph Mayn.
The arts The Drop Dead Gorgeous Show was held in 2000 and although it was originally planned for only one night, extra performances were needed due to the high demand for VIP seats. The costumes for the fashion show were judged by local celebrities Angela Bloomfield of Shortland Street, New Zealand Woman's Weekly fashion editor Tracey Dalton and former model Jason Dye. Organising teachers, Haley Richardson and Carolyn Dye said the "children have been behind the scenes organising everything from a management team and nine designers to the sets and appropriate music for the models".
A celebrity Art Auction was held to raise funds for the school in 2005. Ex-School Committee members Bob Harvey and Tim Shadbolt, plus actors Shane Cortese, Jay Laga'aia and Craig Parker, and cricketer Daniel Vettori were among the celebrities who donated art work to the auction. A student, Tyler Rebers also contributed work and said he "really enjoyed doing the background with the dye". The money raised was used to purchase uniforms for the school's kapa haka group.
Facilities As the school moved toward more information communication technology (I.C.T.) in the curriculum, the board of trustees purchased laptops for the students in 2001. These computers were seen by the principal as a "big step forward...[allowing]...networking throughout the school and students e-mail access".
When the school notified Waitakere City Council that their flag had fallen into disrepair, council staff said that it was important for students to be proud of their country and in 2002, presented Konini with a new one.
After ten years of fundraising, an extended and updated school hall was opened on 27 August 2004. The $235,000 cost was covered by funding from the Ministry of Education, and the ASB Bank Charitable and the Portage Licensing Trusts. The principal Barry Hambleton explained the "interesting history" of the old hall, noting that it was originally a post office, moved onto the site in 1998, adding that the alterations "could easily cater for the school's roll of more than 300...[and]...we've got a number of community groups that can use it as well".
A new library was completed in May 2007 and the principal told the community in a newsletter that it was "great and opened each lunch hour with a large number of children...the window seat now just needs some nice new cushions." The library was officially opened on 2 August 2007. The ceremony involved a full pōwhiri for guests, including Mayor Bob Harvey who talked about his time at the school and presented four books for the library. The school councillors led the guests to the new library supported by the school kapa haka group and the ribbon was cut and a plaque unveiled by Sasha Santosh who was Principal for the Day. Lynne Pillay, a local Member of Parliament, said she was "convinced that the new library will be a wonderful tool to ensure the children of Konini School get the best education and support possible".
It was announced in May 2012 that the P.T.A. was in the process of applying for funding to build a new playground. Support for the financing from The Trusts Community Foundation was acknowledged and the playground was seen as adding "a new dimension to fun and fitness for [the] students." The principal informed parents in a newsletter on 18 October 2012 that the playground was completed and had been officially opened.
In 2019, the school Board of Trustees (Bot) undertook major capital works involving refurbishing classrooms, including upgrading display boards, floor coverings, electrical work and the installation of sliding doors between rooms.
Promotion of cycling Konini School is involved in Bikes in Schools, a programme provided by Sport Waitakere. In 2016, the local newspaper reported that the 1.2 kilometre bike track at Konini, was the only Bikes in Schools track that incorporates bush. To support the programme, in 2021, Sport Waitakere, trained teachers to develop their cycle skills and be better able to instruct students. Pauline Butt from Sport Waitakere said that "ensuring our teachers are well equipped to teach students is an important step to getting more students out and enjoying the adventures that riding a bike offers". The school has a 400m sandstone path around the field created by the Bikes in Schools, and a 150m mountain bike trail through nearby native bush. As well as being used during school time, Auckland Council recommends them as safe for community use.
On 9 June 2017, as part of a promotion by Auckland Transport to improve cycleways in the city, Konini joined other schools in the area to break the Guinness World Record for the largest human image of a bicycle previously held by Kenilworth School in England. The formation, which involved 1799 students, took five minutes and was "captured by a drone camera and documented by a Guinness World Records project manager". The cycling and road safety manager at Auckland Transport, Kathryn King, said it was "about preparing the future generation of commuters to make the choice to travel in an active way, on a bike or by foot to public transport."
Support programmes When a Year 3 student who needed extra time to articulate words due to having cerebral palsy was supported by the school to join a charity called DOGabled in 2017, his teacher and the principal noted that he had overcome anxiety about reading, engaged in a class reading group and achieved at the same level of his peers. Lisa Cochrane, deputy principal and special needs coordinator, explained it involved the student reading out loud to a dog, and that "for a lot of children on the autism spectrum or with dyslexia, the normal tools don't necessarily work, so we are looking to the dog to help unlock some different things...[without focusing]... on the impediment". Andrew Ducat, appointed as principal in 2016, said that historically there was little awareness of how anxiety at school affected students on the spectrum, adding "that the evidence this programme worked was helpful as more parents felt able to inform the school about their students' needs".
Collaborative projects In 2004, Konini School participated in a Ministry of Education programme called Literacy Professional Development (LPDP) and was acknowledged, along with other participating schools, as contributing to data that showed "the improvement for students in years 4–6 in LPDP was twice that of the average student...Pasifika students made more progress than average in both reading and writing...[and]..boys in all groups showed greater than average improvement, and [were] catching up with girls".
Konini was part of the West Auckland Principal Association (WAPA) Learning Change Network, a cluster of schools in West Auckland that worked collaboratively to identify areas of change that could be implemented in the interests of improved student learning. It was noted in a 2014 newsletter that the focus of the programmes at Konini School was a data-based approach to develop reciprocal teaching and learning practices that aimed to build agency through an inquiry-based learning.