Warwick Smith/Stuff
Woodville School’s junior block, built in 1879, is New Zealand’s oldest classroom still in use, but significant earthquake strengthening and renovation costs may soon see it mothballed.
Generations of school children have whispered of the ghostly nun that rings the Woodville School junior block bell, but now the bell may be tolling for New Zealand’s oldest classrooms. The buildings been part of Woodville School since 1879, two years after the school opened with a roll of 30 children, and it is the only classroom of that era still in use today. But the substantial costs to ensure the venerable classroom is fit-for-purpose, and necessary earthquake strengthening work, have called its future into question.