After five years of patiently waiting, Winchester Rural School was finally able to celebrate its 155th jubilee last week.
The school had hoped to celebrate its 150th jubilee in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant it had to be delayed.
The jubilee was held across Friday and Saturday and featured a wide variety of activities.
Friday featured an open school day where pupils gave tours of the school, played old games like horseshoes, and staff dressed up in historical attire and old school uniforms.
The school’s kapa haka group and Jump Jam team gave performances and pupils showed off the folk dances they had learnt.
On Saturday, a formal assembly was held at which, as well as speeches, a special jubilee tree was planted and a new time capsule was created after one that had been planted 30 years ago could not be found.
The jubilee wrapped up on Saturday night with a dinner at the Winchester Hall for ex-pupils.
Deputy principal Jacquie Coombs said it had been a lovely couple of days.
‘‘It was great to watch the attendees come and reconnect with each other, and they were all just laughing and joking together the whole time.
‘‘There’s been some really nice comments on the Winchester community page on Facebook from people that really enjoyed meeting up with people they hadn’t seen for years and years.
‘‘It was just a lovely weekend and people came from Australia, the North Island, from everywhere around the South Island, and still got here despite all the weather earlier in the week.’’
The school had 120 expupils register for the jubilee, she said.
‘‘Lots from between the 1940s and the 1980s, not so many after that but that’s a sign of the times. People are now on Facebook, and see each other all the time.
‘‘The oldest attendee we had was 96.’’
It was great to have finally been able to hold the jubilee, she said.
‘‘We’ve done the pre-stuff three times, it was really good to finally get it out of the way.’’
