Rose Bell is calling time on her more than 45›year career at Waimate High School.
Mrs Bell said when she began in 1975, the school had 650 pupils on the roll, as it had been built for larger numbers.
In those days, boys were on one side of the school studying woodwork, metalwork and graphics, while girls were on the other side studying soft materials and home economics.
When they started to allow boys to take soft materials and subsequently girls were allowed to take hard materials and graphics, Mrs Bell was trained to teach the subjects by a teacher she had gone through primary school with.
She said in those days the school had been a homely place where parents and the school board had made her feel like a part of their families.
The community had changed over the years.
Bus transport had taken pupils further afield and people had started moving away from town for work.
‘‘Farms got subdivided and dairy farming came in.’’
While immigrants coming to work on those farms provided diversity, the dairy industry’s moving day meant some of the children were at the school for only a year before moving on.
She felt families were facing more challenges as a result of separation and absent parents.
There had been various principals and staff changes over the years — as well as the recent pandemic — on top of new ways of teaching, and nothing had ever remained the same for too long.
‘‘You just had to adapt to what was there.’’
Trends in education were cyclical and things were taught again, just looked at from a different angle.
One of the changes she felt sad about was how far New Zealand’s literacy rate had fallen.
‘‘We were one of the countries who had the highest education systems in the world.’’
While it was partly down to tinkering with a system that wasn’t broken, she was unsure how much technology was to blame for the decline. She believed almost unlimited technology had steadily been taking away life skills from children. They spent too much time on technology and not enough time climbing trees. ‘‘Life skills are all about taking risks. ‘‘It is still important to have basic literacy and numeracy abilities as you need to feed technology the right data.’’
People who had returned to Waimate often approached her to remind her of what she had taught them.
Three children of her own had been raised in the town, which meant if she hadn’t taught a child she would have met them through coaching her children’s sports teams or through their friendships.
She ran adult sewing classes after school and was involved in a range of sports, including netball, miniball, basketball, tennis and athletics.
She had taught a wide range of subjects during her career but had a passion for textiles and design.
She also put that to good use outside the classroom, as she has designed five houses over the years, two of which were built in Waimate.
‘‘I love the kids — that is why I’ve held on.’’
Seeing pupils enter the school in their junior years then become their own person by the time they were about to leave the school was a highlight for her, Mrs Bell said.
But as well as getting to know the pupils, she also enjoyed the collegiality of staff and getting to know families.
She was excited that she would have time to spend with her four grandchildren and would enjoy walking ‘‘in my time’’ rather than having to fit it in to her working day.
She also had friends to catch up with and plenty of knitting and sewing to keep her busy.
