22 Jun 2020

Emotional homecoming for Te Raekura Redcliffs school after Canterbury quakes

From Checkpoint, 6:22 pm on 22 June 2020

It was a tearful homecoming of sorts for Te Raekura Redcliffs School on Monday morning - nine years after the Christchurch quakes forced it out of its origin location.

The school has been rebuilt - not on the same spot - but back in its neighbourhood after a dogged fight from locals who were originally told it would be shut down altogether.

Over the years the school's been bumped around three different locations and many of its students have come and gone on to high school, but on Monday more than 200 hundred eager kids, whānau and teachers were at the gates of their new campus almost a decade on.

Lisa Owen spoke to principal Rose McInerney and asked how it felt to be on the new grounds.