The tiny Dunedin school slain siblings Bradley and Ellen Livingstone attended is working with their devastated mother to plan a lasting memorial to their short lives.
"When we go, we do not want them forgotten," an emotional St Leonards School principal Jo Wilson said today.
Every day, 9-year-old Bradley walked his younger sister Ellen, 6, the short distance to the school from their family home.
The children's mother Katharine Webb is being comforted at the Dunedin of her elderly parents, Victor and Valerie Webb, APNZ has been told.
St Leonards School, with its roll of 72 pupils, has opened its doors yesterday and today for children and parents to gather, support each other, and pay their respects.
The Ministry of Education and police have been providing guidance to the school, who had contacted every family individually after receiving the tragic news.
Both Bradley and Ellen were popular kids with many friends, said Ms Wilson.
"They were both just lovely kids," she said.
"The community is coming together. We've got a whole heap of kids, parents, and food, and we're just looking after each other.
"We all know everybody and so that's why we're doing that.
"Kids are doing what kids do. They're out playing, and then they're talking. We'll keeping talking - that's the main thing. And that's not going to stop, because they feelings are not going to go away for a long, long time."
Now the school is planning an appropriate, and lasting, tribute.
Ms Wilson said she spoke to Ms Webb this morning about what to do next.
"She's just got to get her around what she's going to do and how she's going to move forward," she said.
"We're starting to get ideas from the community for tributes or things that we can do."
Since Bradley, along with his mother, was keen on orienteering, one idea put forward is the creation of an orienteering track which could be named in his honour.
Another idea was to renovate the school library and somehow tie it in with Bradley and Ellen, who Ms Wilson said was "arty, and loved ballet, dancing and singing".
"We want to do something that is about them, and to provide a lasting memory. When we go, we do not want them forgotten," she said.
The school has posted a bank account number on its website, www.stleonardsdn.school.nz, for anyone who wants to make donations.
"It's for Katharine, but having talked to her sister, it will probably be for Womens Refuge, but Katharine can decide."
