When school resumes in a few weeks, the staffroom at Ōpōtiki Primary School will be missing one of its stalwarts.

Dianne Dunn has retired after more than four decades at the chalkface educating local tamariki.

Principal Tony Howe said Mrs Dunn, who also attended Ōpōtiki Primary as a child, was the school’s longest-serving teacher since the first intake of students in 1873.

“Dianne has taught here for a total of 44 years starting in 1977, then she had a four-year break after her daughter was born,” he said.

“She has taught all year levels but her preferred age group has always been in our senior classes.”

Mr Howe said many years ago, Mrs Dunn was awarded an Advanced Classroom Expert Teacher award, given out “very sparingly” to primary teachers who reached the high required standards.

“Along the way, she became the only teacher in New Zealand to have their classroom NZ Herald paper awarded the top prize six times in its six-year history,” he said.

“We thank Dianne and wish her well in the future, which may include editing our school magazine, which she has done for the last 19 years.”

In fact, editing the school magazine is one of the “hats” that Mrs Dunn will retain  and so is being involved with the planning of the school’s English curriculum.

“As I say farewell, I can’t help but think about all the hats I’ve worn during my 50 years in teaching,” Mrs Dunn said.

“Because let’s be honest – teaching is not a one-hat job, but a career that requires a whole wardrobe of hats and I’ve worn them all, often several at once.”

Wearing her “teacher hat”, one of the most fun challenges has been maintaining a straight face when confronted with such questions as: “Miss, what colour is a fart” and “What do you call a fly with no wings” or “What happens if a vampire bites a zombie?”

Mrs Dunn said she had received most of her grey hairs from wearing the “patience hat”, trying to get students to fall asleep during camps – endless whispering and crunching of lolly wrappers – or just trying to keep senior boys and girls in their respective bunkrooms.

Meanwhile, the “hat of change” had appeared frequently, when blackboards turned into whiteboards and when her book bin morphed into a laptop and the staffroom became smoke-free.

The “coaches hat” came out in uncomfortable circumstances – 13 seasons of running up and down the sidelines on wet and cold Saturday mornings, wondering if it would ever end – until the Howe girls ran up and down the sidelines, heralding a good future for netball, and the personal Saturdays were reclaimed.

Mrs Dunn also wore her “creative hat” with several school productions, the New Zealand Herald school paper competitions and when James Rolleston got his big break in the film Boy while being a student in her class.

“But of all the hats I’ve worn, the favourites have been the mentor, friend and whānau hats – teaching my mokos, watching my students grow into remarkable people and building lifelong friendships with my incredible colleagues,” Mrs Dunn said.

Career timeline spanning 44 years

Mrs Dunn attended Training College in Hamilton from 1972 to 1974.
In 1975 she took up her first teaching position at Matamata Primary School.
She came to the Ōpōtiki Primary School in 1977 until her daughter Sarah was born.
From 1980 to 1983, she focused on her family while also doing long-term relieving work at  Ōpōtiki Primary. Omarumutu, and Ashbrook schools
From 1984, she was back at Ōpōtiki Primary School until her resignation, effective January 27, 2025.

Key memories

* Banda machine:
Before printers and photocopiers, we used the Banda machine to make copies of worksheets. It was kept in a small room off the office area and teachers would rush to get there earlier they would have to wait in the queue to get their worksheets finished. The smell of methylated spirits was intoxicating and one couldn’t help but get the blue ink all over everything.

* Scary staffroom:
The staffroom was a scary place for me as a young teacher as there was an established hierarchy among the senior teachers. People sat in the same place every day and you didn’t take someone else’s place – or so I imagined.

* Great memories:
I have great memories of Greta Tuite and Jack Howe. Jack was the DP at the time and I learned many positive strategies for classroom management from him. Greta was a wonderful teacher and so versatile.

* Junior department:
During the 1980s I was lucky to work in the junior department, which was led by Jenny Rillstone. She was regarded as one of the leading teachers in literacy in the district and through her phonological approach to teaching reading she had successfully taught hundredss of students to read over the years. She had a wicked sense of humour.

* Smoking rights:
During the 1980s it was not unusual to find teachers smoking in their classrooms before school and at breaks to their student’s disgust. Smoking was permitted in the playground and was allowed in the staffroom even though there was a lot of objection to it – the smokers had their rights.

* Music Festival:
The Music Festival was a huge event in our school and town and took lots of coordination and practice between the senior classes and schools. Carole Young and Meryl Watson and later Lynne Cotton were the ladies who planned the music for this event, which culminated in an evening of music.

* Edgecumbe Earthquake:
I was teaching in Room 2 when the first shake rattled the windows along the corridor side of the room and sent my class under their desks. I stood in the doorway. There was a lot of laughter and talking. Eventually it subsided and they came out.  We were just about to start work when it started again. This aftershock was a bit more serious and my students were much more subdued as they went under. I looked over at the swimming pool and I could see the water rocking back and forth.

* Newspaper competition:
One big memory was involving my students in a collaborative project which involved learning using the New Zealand Herald Competition as the catalyst. Conducting research and interviews, writing articles and creating a newspaper entry into this competition which we won six years in a row from 2001 to 2007 and earning $30,000 for our school was an incredible experience.

* Dance festivals:
Another major highlight was our involvement in The Meadow Fresh Dance Festival which is held annually in Tauranga. We participated in this for five years. We choreographed a seven-minute dance sequence that was created from the students’ own ideas and moves, made the costumes, and practiced until perfect. We then performed this in front of a huge audience in The Baycourt Theatre in Tauranga.