It applies at one of Central Otago’s smallest schools, where "good old-fashioned country kids" and a tightknit community continue to reap results in the education field, those involved with a milestone celebration in the Poolburn district say.
They included former Poolburn School teachers Esther and Colin McKay, now of Alexandra, who said their six years in Poolburn, from early 1968 to the end of 1973, were their most treasured teaching years.
They remembered "wonderful country kids who wanted to learn" and were robust, independent and caring.
"The kids were so good they almost ran themselves," Mrs McKay said.
"We had old to young in the classroom and they knew the routine. You almost didn’t have to watch out for the little kids, because the big ones were looking after them."
When the McKays came to Poolburn, there were just over 30 pupils on the roll, the same number the school has now.
Mrs McKay remembered how welcome they were made to feel by the Poolburn community, "Patsy Flannery from across the road" greeting her with a "big bunch of sweet peas and a sponge cake" when they arrived and "the whole thing" at the school being "family, from top to toe".
Fifty years ago, the Poolburn school committee of the McKays’ era ran a flock of sheep to raise money for "school extras" from the wool and lamb they sold.
Former pupil Martin Flannery, of Cromwell, who was taught by the McKays, had "happy memories" of his schooling in Poolburn, where children "worked hard, made friends and had fun".
His teacher mother, Joan Daly, had come to Poolburn in 1956 to do a year’s "country service", but never left, meeting her husband-to-be Pat Flannery there and marrying in 1959.
Mr Flannery had fond memories of both the sporting and community events at Poolburn and the music that Mr McKay brought into the school, and said the district’s hospitality and self-sufficiency continued.
The 130th celebrations included the official opening of a new multipurpose sports turf.
