Pareawa Banks Avenue School

from Principals Today #136

by Academy Group

The spice of life

A new school with a new name

By Timmi Aplin-Barrett

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After 11 long years, the students and teachers of Banks Avenue School finally have a new school and new name.

Now known as Pareawa Banks Avenue, the school is getting a fresh start. For 66 years, the school has been going strong and then, in the devastating 2011 earthquakes, was badly damaged. Pareawa Banks Avenue School principal, Toni Burnside, says she’d been working at a different school during that time and moved to Pareawa Banks Avenue in 2014. “In 2012, when the Ministry of Education looked at restructuring the education system in Christchurch, some schools were shut, some were merged and some were either partially or fully rebuilt. I lost my job to a merge school,” Toni says. “Banks Avenue was to be a rebuild school and when I took over in 2014, we all knew it was going to be rebuilt.” Toni says everyone thought they were going to be in the new school by 2017. However, this wasn’t the case and it stretched out until 2022. “The prime reason for that is that finding a location for a whole new school isn’t easy,” Toni explains. “It was going to be on a park but then locals wouldn’t have had anywhere to do sports. We couldn’t use our old site because the land was damaged and it would have compromised the build.” Eventually, it came out that Shirley Boys High School was moving to a new site and merging, which left their old site empty. Even then, the process still took a long time. “We had to wait for them to leave and then for the old buildings to be demolished and the new one built,” Toni says. Now though, the students and faculty of Pareawa Banks Avenue School are happily installed in their brand-new buildings. It’s a far cry from what they’ve been dealing with at the old location.

“Because we knew we were going to be rebuilt, there was no money put into the old school,” she says. “So, the kids were in a really grotty environment. We literally had stuff duct taped together. Kids complained of the toilets smelling and not working but credit to them – they boxed on and put up with it.” Toni says they got everything they wanted out of their new build. “The first thing the kids said was that it was warm and clean.”

They now boast a stunning hall fit for school discos, productions and community hire. Shirley Boys left behind their gymnasium so now the kids have a full gym to explore. There’s even a radio room like the one they had in the old school.

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But, that’s not all. Along with the new school came a new name. Toni says the name was a big process and took nearly a year to work through and get right. “We worked with local iwi and consulted with families to find the name. Eventually, we were given the name “Pareawa” from iwi, which means “adorn the banks of the river”. This talks about the plants on the riverside… but it’s more than that too – our children are coming through here and being adorned with the skills we give them.” However, they wanted to honour the past and where they came from. The old school was located on Banks Avenue, so after much deliberation and discussion, they made the decision to merge their new name and their old name. “It both shows our past and the cultural narrative. You can see the authenticity all throughout the school.”

Toni says the process was absolutely worth it. “All our learning pods are named after significant plants along the banks of the river. Of course, we had to redo all our branding: the manifestations on the glass windows, the hall mural and our school value pillars all reflect our cultural narrative,” she says. The new school was opened first with a blessing and a cleansing from local iwi over the holidays and then a powhiri on the first Wednesday of term three. Christchurch’s mayor and the Minister for Education, Chris Hipkins, attended the event. Toni says during the blessing, they planted a memorial tree. Now, Pareawa Banks Avenue School can forge ahead in their purposebuilt spaces. Toni says they’re working on collaborative teaching. “We prototyped this at the old school but with the new spaces, it’s different,” she says. “We’re taking the time to figure it all out and how to use the spaces to our advantage.” It’s clear that this means so much to students, families and teachers. Toni says the long process was absolutely worth it. “What a privilege it is as a leader and a principal to be in a new environment,” she says. “It took thousands of decisions to get here and, finally, here we are.”

“We worked with local iwi and consulted with families to find the name. Eventually, we were given the name “Pareawa” from iwi, which means “adorn the banks of the river.”