Community and School
Lyttelton Main School is a co-educational State primary school catering for pupils from Year One to Year Eight. The first school on this site was the Lyttelton Borough School that opened on 21 January 1875. However, the school did exist in name and in another form before this date. The school is built below the historic Lyttelton Gaol site and stories abound from previous generations on the role prisoners had in the building of the large concrete retaining walls in the senior playground.
Geographically Lyttelton is separated from Christchurch by the Port Hills. This environment creates a close small town community. The port is Lyttelton′s visible focus and provides spectacular views. Some of our families have strong historical links through generations of working at the port. With deregulation of the waterfront industry in the late 1980s this situation has changed quite dramatically as a smaller workforce is now required. Children come to Lyttelton Main from a variety of backgrounds and from as far afield as Cass Bay, Heathcote, St Martins, Beckenham and from all over Lyttelton.
The teaching staff consists of a non-teaching principal, an assistant principal (senior school), senior teacher (junior school), senior teacher senior school, these latter two positions each have a fixed term management unit as well as their permanent unit, two other fixed term Management positions, and a further two full time teachers and part time teachers including a Reading Recovery teacher and a teacher who takes Te Reo Maori. Ancillary staff consists of a school secretary, teacher aides as the need arises, a cleaner and a part-time caretaker who maintains the buildings and grounds.
As the school is built on a hill, the site is divided into 5 distinct areas with three blocks of buildings. The Junior School playground is connected by steps to the Senior School playground above. Adjacent to the school and Ministry Property is a grassed area, a Memorial Rose Garden and public playground (these are maintained by the local authority) which are part of the school. We use the grassed area and playground on a regular basis and the Rose Garden occasionally. At lunch time a parent volunteer or the principal supervise children on the grass area, playground and skate park half-an-hour per day. Past and present School Councils / Boards of Trustees have worked at establishing garden areas to soften the environment and trees are becoming established to make the playgrounds a more welcoming place. Lyttelton Main is an Enviro school.
The Board of Trustees has, through fundraising, provided an Adventure Playground and shaded areas. Extension programmes are provided (intellectual, physical and cultural) using money raised in three Banks Peninsula Art Auctions and a Recipe Book promotion (this latter on is providing on-going funds, $35,000 for each of the two Lyttelton schools in the first six months). These programmes also involve Lyttelton West in combined ventures.
There are 7 classrooms used for day to day teaching, a series of small resource rooms and a school hall. The library is the 7th classroom. Roll growth reached 162 in 2009, in 2010 we have started the year with 130 and are optimistic that the roll will reach 152 from the figures supplied by the two excellent pre-school centres. The school uses ICT to facilitate learning.
In 2009 the school was allocated $2,064,000 for a rebuild under the present Government, the process for this has already begun but is a slow one. Community consultation and consultation with the Historic Places Trust and the Christchurch City Council have taken considerable time but this is essential for the best outcome for the Lyttelton Community. Lyttelton Main School is well known and supported in the community from the parochial Lytteltonian to new residents. The school enjoys a close association with the community and is supported in many ways by former pupils and new residents alike. Some families have a proud 4 or 5 generation association with our school. During the past five years there has been a noticeable increase in the number of professional families.
The schools′close proximity to the business area of Lyttelton adds to its involvement and high profile in local community activities. The school has a Saturday Farmers′ Market on site; this has brought benefit to the school and to the wider community, providing much needed funds for community programmes with a little financial spin-off to the school but more importantly providing a community space during the weekend. The school hall is well used by the community ranging from after school programmes to French evening classes to Karate. The school leads the partnership with Lyttelton West School; we introduced several joint ventures: Drama workshops, Gymnastic, Dance, Action Sport, Snow Trips, Sailing and a Talent Quest. Lyttelton West are now taking up the co-operative venture with Speech Competitions in 2008, a Talent Quest in 2009 and organising a sports session in 2010. We look forward to a continuing relationship for the benefit of all Lyttelton children.
Every Saturday Lyttelton farmers market is held in the school grounds. This colourful weekly community event is a vibrant and friendly place to meet friends and neighbours while trying local products and produce.
