Project Playground - Tautoro School

The playground, installed by Mitre 10’s Helping Hands Project Playground initiative, represents years of hard mahi at the once-shrinking Northland school.

Kaikohe locals joined Ministers Kelvin Davis and Willow-jean Prime at the unveiling of a playground at Tautoro School today, marking a significant turnaround for a school of just 56 students seven years ago. The state-of-the-art playground donated and built via the Mitre 10 Helping Hands Project Playground initiative caps years of effort to create an environment that even big-city schools would envy.

When Principal Tracey Simeon joined then-decile one Tautoro School in 2015, its roll was plummeting, reaching a low of 56 in 2016. That meant funding was limited, reflecting the size of the school, but the need was great.

“At my first Board of Trustees meeting, the first item on the agenda was to fix the pool that had been broken for eight years. We also had one classroom that was literally weeping, and we saw the kids who were in there had extra health problems,” Tracey explains.

With the board and staff, Tracey campaigned tirelessly for funding, conducting now-famous Tautoro meat raffles, running a dinner with professional chefs, securing donations from local businesses and salting money away for years. Their efforts saw the Ministry of Education add its support for a new pool and rebuilt classrooms completed just this year.

The school’s leaders also got involved with digital education programme Manaiakalani, introducing a digital curriculum, structural engineering programmes including robot-building and securing free computers to engage students. A shuttle van was launched to bring students from Kaikohe, and school lunches were provided. It quickly became the place to be – and that created a new problem.

When the junior playground was built, it catered for 30 students. By 2023, the roll had swelled to 156 students, with more than 90 juniors, including many displaced by housing shortages elsewhere. That inevitably created fights for space, even when the playground was “a drab, lifeless corner of our school” with rotten posts, according to Tracey.

The new playground, the seventh in the award-winning Project Playground initiative, is a vast departure, featuring designs from the children themselves to make it extra unique.

“This will take the kids out of those shared spaces with basketball and netball games happening, where they could get hurt – and already, it’s making us all feel so happy. I’ve had Year 4 students approaching me, worried they only have a term left to use it!” says Tracey.

Mitre 10 Head of Brand Marketing, Rob Bowring, says the depth of the community’s involvement showed the pride they have in their school.

“At the opening we had two Ministers standing alongside Department of Corrections community service workers, who assisted with the playground safety surrounds. Local business Mid North Farms and Chairman Tony Liefting donated extra towards the playground and installation of a space net, and the team from Mitre 10 Kerikeri also came down to support with the celebrations, it’s absolutely fantastic to see,” he says.

The official karakia to open the playground was performed by old boy, kaumatua Joseph Matene, followed by a greeting by kaumatua Wikitoria TeWhata, who attended the school when it was on its original 1906 site, before it shifted in 1950. Wikitoria continues to provide lessons in tikanga and te reo Māori to students.

“It takes a village to raise a child, and that’s what this is all about. We’re a whānau-based school – I invest heavily, the staff invest heavily and the whole community does the same,” Tracey says.

Mitre 10 worked with leading local design and installation company Playground People to ensure this play space caters to the ages and needs of the tamariki, with the aim of keeping children engaged in active play throughout their primary school years.