ABOUT US

WHO ARE WE?

OUR CLASS OF 2015
We are a class of 24 fantastic students, thirteen Year 4's and eleven Year 3's.
We have 10 boys in our class and 14 girls, so the girls continue to outnumber the boys!

OUR SCHOOL
We think that our school is really awesome and here's why:

• We are an Area School and have students from Year 0 - Year 13 (5 years - 13 years).
• Our school has been in our district for 150 years.
• We have an I.T room which is full of computers as well as computers in our classrooms.
• Our library has lots of awesome books as well as games and computers.
• Most children bus to school from Tuapeka, Waitahuna, Beaumont and Waitahuna West.
• We have a great playground and a HUGE sports field.
• We have a BIG gymnasium to do sport in.  We also use our gym for performances.
• Because we are an Area School we also have a cooking room, science room, materials technology room, music room and art room that we are able to make use of.
• Our classrooms have ActivBoards in them.
• We celebrate with Student of the Week certificates and a Shining Star trophy for super hard workers as well as class achievement awards.
• Our school motto is 'Strive to Excel'.  We try really hard to always Strive to Excel.
• We get to drink Fonterra milk every day.

We all know our school VISION which is:

'We develop lifelong learners, who are motivated, confident and willing to contribute.'

 

OUR TOWN
Lawrence is the gateway to Central Otago and is located on the main highway from Dunedin to Alexandra, in the South Island of New Zealand.  We are a small town with a population of about 500 people.
Lawrence is a very famous town in NZ because Gabriel Read discovered gold here in 1861 which made Lawrence Otago's first goldrush town.

We have recently discovered that Lawrence was initially named The Junction and then Tuapeka before being renamed Lawrence after a British war hero whose name was Sir Henry Lawrence.

Did you know that there are two other places in the world also called Lawrence?  These are in:

• Kansas, USA.  This 'Lawrence' is the sixth largest city in Kansas and has a population of 87,643 people!
• Massachusetts, USA.  Another large city with a population of 76,377.

Click here to find out more about Lawrence

6 'MUST SEE' PLACES AROUND LAWRENCE (as voted by Room 4)

• Harts Black Horse Brewery and daffodil fields: because there are lots of special features like the water race and HEAPS of daffodils, especially in the spring.

Click on the photo to find out more...

• Gabriel's Gully: named after Gabriel Read who discovered gold here in 1861.    At the height of the goldrush there were twice as many people living at Gabriel's Gully than in Dunedin.  Today Gabriel's Gully has walking tracks, Chinese mines, camping spots and Grey's dam to explore.

Click on the photo to find out more...

• Blue Spur: not far from Gabriel's Gully.  This is an old village which was a bustling town at the height of the goldrush. Although there is not a lot to see now, there used to be a school at Blue Spur that had more than 250 pupils and 5 teachers.  Some people still live there today but it is a much quieter existence.

• Gabriel's Cafe: because it used to be the Bank of New Zealand.  It is a very old building that has been turned into a cafe and is easy to find on our main street as you drive through Lawrence.

• Lawrence Museum: because it has a lot of gold mining memorabilia and information about the history of Lawrence.

• Local churches: because we have five in our town.  They all have bells and have stories behind them.

Other special features of our town:

• Anthem House, known due to previous owner JJ Woods (a Lawrence school teacher) who composed the music for the NZ National Anthem    
• Famous for the 'Lawrence Lions' who escaped from the circus and roamed the town in 1978, now on display in the Otago Museum in Dunedin
• Pick and Shovel monument 
• Rail Trail - newly constructed cycling trail
• Hart's Black Horse Brewery and daffodil fields
• Lovely cafes
• Rodeo and gymkhana grounds
• Tuapeka Transport
• Tuapeka Gold Print - famous for printmaking which is our town's largest business, employing many of the residents of Lawrence
• Lawrence was the first free WIFI town in NZ