Riversdale pupils give teachers the thumbs up

Riversdale Primary School pupils (back from left) Caleb Stevenson (11), Taine McKay (11), Blake Ditchfield (11, obscured), (middle from left) Taylor Davis (8), Oscar McCurdy (6), Gianluca Frei (7), and (front from left) Jack Butler (6) and Takunda Mabonga (7) celebrate World Teachers' Day on Friday.

Riversdale school pupils dipped their hands in paint and raised their hands and voices in a loud colourful demonstration of appreciation at 12.30pm on Friday.

Teacher Rebecca Avery, who is a member of the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), said pupils produced artworks featuring collage and poetry all in appreciation of their teachers for the day.

While parents were a child's first teachers, school teachers played an important role in children's development, Miss Avery said.

She encouraged children to recognise that teachers were not just based in schools, but a variety of people who took on a teaching or coaching role outside schools also needed to be honoured.

These included sports coaches and music teachers.

"Teachers aren't just in schools," Miss Avery said.

The school was often the hub of the community and that was certainly true in Riversdale, she said.

Not only did the pupils show their appreciation, but community members provided a sumptuous morning tea for the teachers.

"It was just really showing us that they appreciate us," she said.

Thousands of children, teachers, parents and communities put their hands up for learning on Friday, as part of World Teachers' Day celebrations, NZEI media officer Liz Brown said.

The NZEI represented thousands of principals and teachers in primary and intermediate schools as well as kindergartens and early childhood centres throughout New Zealand, Ms Brown said.

World Teachers' Day was marked in more than 100 countries.