Papatoetoe School

From May 1942 until December 1945, I was a pupil at Papatoetoe District School.

Standing at the corner of Great South Road and St Georges Street, Papatoetoen was the largest primary school in the country, and growing fast. It was the only school between Otahuhu and Manurewa. Quite a few of the pupils came by bus from the country areas of East Tamaki, Flat Bush, Puhinui and so on.

The buildings were very old. The main building, at the oldest part, consisted of two large rooms, with very high ceilings and a large open foyer area, which was also regularly used as a classroom too. This block faced the Great South Road, and had the Headmaster's office added at the back. At the north end was a wing of two or three rooms at right angles; at the southern end another wing of three or four rooms. In a separate block, the infant classes ran away from the main block towards the north, behind the houses that fronted onto Great South Road. Later temporary rooms were added at the edge of the playing fields along the St Georges Street frontage. The yard enclosed by the wings was completed by a line of shelter sheds along the west side, with a tiny tuck-shop in the middle, opened briefly at lunchtime by a visiting lady who sold hot pies and cream buns for fourpence each.

Most of the male teachers in that decade had left for the armed services. For a year or two I had an older man who was less than perfect at his job, but earlier at Papatoetoe I had had a lady called Miss Savory who was fine.

The school had a large field for playing Kingoseeny, and for the older boys to play football and cricket, but I was not into those more formal games.  Next door to the school was the Papatoetoe Recreation Ground which contained sports fields for the adult teams and was close enough for us to use when we wanted to.

Although we were at least a kilometre from the school, we walked both ways, as was the custom in those days. Even on the frostiest winter mornings we did not wear shoes and socks; it would have been the height of embarrassment to be seen with footwear!

I remember being interested by the Geography lessons in the last two years: we looked at Canada, Australia and India as I remember. And Arithmetic was always interesting, my special memory is of learning fractions and being able to answer the Headmaster's questions when he came to test us one day. Writing compositions was always fun, although handwriting was never my long suit.

But my most vivid memories of that period are of my last year, 1945, when I was appointed milk monitor, and I had to look after the school milk scheme, checking we had received the right number of bottles, and that they were going to the right classrooms, and then receiving them all back again after playtime, and filling in the paperwork accurately and ordering the suppliers to send us the right quantity the next day. I got a great kick out of doing this job well; it was excellent training in organising work.