Steph Bell-Jenkins finds a school caretaker who is a class act.
Goodwood School caretaker Grant Keane on the jet ski he refurbished for the playground, surrounded by students (from left) Jessica Hawkins, Beth Iremonger, Maddison Nally, Kaia Gundry, Riley Brier and Viktor Shilov.
Wanted: creative caretaker who thinks like Peter Pan.
We seek a resourceful person who is as comfortable cleaning toilets as they are constructing an adventure park from materials retrieved from the rubbish bin. Must have a passion for scouring the internet for broken-down vehicles.
It wasn’t the job description back when he applied, but it might be now.
Since he was hired as Goodwood School’s caretaker six years ago, Grant Keane has moulded the role to suit his unique skills and abilities – while significantly boosting the playground’s fun factor.
Thanks to his rich imagination and aptitude for creating useful things out of junk, the school now boasts a power boat, a jet ski, a miniature house, a Big Foot boardwalk, a BMX track, an outdoor gymnastics zone, a chook house and a bike rack named The Jetty.
Grant’s power boat has become “a bit of a social hub”.
“I try to come up with names the kids will catch onto,” Grant said. “It’s much more appealing to put your bike away when you’re parking it at The Jetty.”
The school’s play vehicle collection started two years ago after Grant came across an old boat on Facebook Marketplace for $60 and decided it would be an entertaining addition to the playground.
“We’re in a bit of a PC world,” he said.
“Once upon a time you could have a tractor in your playground, and that’s kind of gone. I’m probably going against the grain by bringing it back a little bit. But I think if everything’s safe, there’s no reason why it can’t be there.”
He repaired the boat in his school shed with recycled wood, got a seized engine from Cambridge Marine for free and mounted the vessel on a repurposed archgola.
It had since become “a bit of a social hub”, principal David Graham said.
“It promotes that adventure play. And we’re an Enviroschool, so it’s good to see stuff that would otherwise go to landfill being used.”
Grant built this playhouse with pine fence palings and recycled materials.
Amongst Grant’s other creations are a playhouse built from pine fence palings and recycled materials, and a Yamaha Waverunner jet ski, which he bought from a Kawhia couple for $300 and mounted on a recycled rock shaker from a quarry.
He’s currently building a mobile classroom out of a Kenworth truck cab, which a parent donated.
“We’re going to have a solar panel on the roof so all the lights will go all the time…and we’re going to put it on wheels so it can be towed around the school.”
Grant said he was “extremely lucky” to have the backing of his principal and community.
The dedicated caretaker said he’d always wanted the grounds to be “more like a park than a school yard”.
“It’s very satisfying because the kids tell you it, you know? If you look around the school, there’s not much rubbish lying around, is there? When I first came here I walked around at lunchtime, morning tea, and picked up rubbish. Now it’s the other way. They pick it up and they throw it in the bin. They’re really proud to come here.
“And the kids, I have to say, they never go past without saying hello. They have a lot of trust in me. You give to them and you get it back.”
Grant’s next project, if he can find room for it, will be an aeroplane.
“I was thinking a jet fighter myself, but anyway…one day,” he said.
Grant is currently working on restoring this Kenwood truck cab and turning it into a mobile classroom.
