A new playground in Thames that was designed by local school children is now open following an official ceremony recently.

The new Hauraki Terrace Playground replaces the previously existing one which was starting to fall apart, with rotten wooden posts, nails sticking out, graffiti and litter strewn about.

Student of Thames South School performing an impromptu haka following the official opening of the Hauraki Terrace Playground. Photo: TCDC

A ribbon-cutting ceremony, a sausage sizzle and an impromptu haka were all part of the grand official opening.

When Parks and Reserves Manager Derek Thompson saw the run-down playground, he got in touch with Thames South School, where most of the neighbourhood's children attend.

The idea was for students to get involved in designing a replacement and it was carried out with the help of teacher Greg Pilcher and his class.

Working closely with Derek, the pupils canvassed other children on what was needed. They identified what equipment would be best, where to put it and they came up with a budget.

They then went to the Thames Community Board, presenting their report as a solution to the problem of the decaying playground and asking for funding for it to be built. Funding was granted and last year the playground was put in place.

Greg's class attended the grand opening and cut the ribbon around the playground, with each student keeping a piece. This was then followed by spontaneous haka from a group of students.

Thames South School student Ana Johnston, 10, was responsible for the design of playground after it was voted by her classmates to be made into reality.

She says watching the playground finally being built last year was the best part of the project.

'It had gone from a picture on a piece of paper to a real thing on the ground.”

Classmate Kain Kim was one of the students who helped deliver the playground presentation to the Thames Community Board.

'I really liked us being able to say our own speech to Council. We got to write down what to say.”

While fellow classmate Paige Madden-Morehu agrees: "We asked whether we could put in the playground so the community would have somewhere safe to play.

'We watched the transformation from a humble little playground to something we'll have for a long, long time.”

Their teacher Greg Pilcher summed up what the project had meant for his class.

'The kids have seen they can make a difference and do make a difference in the community,” says Greg. 'They respect their playground because they created it. It's clean and tidy because it's theirs.

'And I hope we're raising active community members rather than people who do nothing and complain.”

COMMUNITY SPIN-OFFS

The playground replacement project has inspired others to get involved.

Another class at Thames South School saw the success of the project and wanted to do something. They came up with the idea to give the stairway up Grey Street, Jacob's Ladder, a makeover.

The steps were painted bright colours borrowed from a public sculpture on the Thames Coastal Walkway. Those same rainbow colours are also used on bollards around Victoria Park.

These colours were then incorporated into the playground's border, where the pupils have painted their handprints on a white background.

The children of a local pre-school have made tile mosaic benches which were installed at the playground on March 2.

Thames South School partnered with nearby St Francis School last year to plant native trees near the playground - at the kids' suggestion - to bring native birds back to the reserve. This was done under the Trees For Survival programme in conjunction with Council.

The community group behind Bright Smile Community Garden wants to plant a community garden in the reserve near the new playground.

And Transition Town Thames, which has been planting fruit trees around Thames, has planted fruit trees at the reserve.

The official cutting of the ribbon. Photo: TCDC