Pūriri School’s new lawnmower is on the job 24/7, keeping the school’s fields, lawns, and roadside berms trim and tidy. There’s work to be done in all weather and even in the middle of the night – but Hagrid never complains.
That’s because Hagrid is a Husqvarna autonomous lawn mower, part of the Ministry of Education’s Small School Facilities Management pilot programme aiming to reduce the cost of property management for principals in small and rural schools.
Like an overgrown Roomba robot vacuum, Hagrid zips quietly around the school, trimming a few millimetres of grass at a time to avoid leaving clippings behind. Eight schools around the Waikato were chosen to trial the robot mowers, which were installed around three months ago.
Pūriri School principal Lydia Lester said the initiative will save the school over $10,000 a year in lawnmowing costs.
“It’s very easy to use. The kids love watching him. Even when we first got him, we’d have community members stopping and just watching him,” she said.
“And we’ll be able to put that [saved] money straight back into the kids. We’ve given extra hours to our teacher aide this year, which means extra support for our students.”
The mowers are just one small part of the pilot programme, which has offered external caretaking and maintenance planning services to 46 Waikato schools. The trial also includes access to a 24/7 helpline for logging urgent property jobs and organising contractors, the ministry said.
Shaun Prescott of Prescott’s Garages installed Pūriri School’s mower. He said it was a huge job, as he had to map the school’s grounds with GPS to guide its route.
“It’s been quite a process of getting it right, but the way I set up the area can save a lot of time,” Shaun said.
“If you run these properly, you’re only taking a couple of millimetres every day. It goes back and recharges itself, then goes back to work.”
Shaun said the programmed route takes the mower across a total of 8500 square metres.
“It’s right on the upper limit of that model machine. It’s mowing 99 per cent of the school,” he said.
“It’s mowing the roadsides, on the field, around the classrooms. And it does it when it’s not obtrusive. Just silently, no emissions… You can mow the field in the middle of the night, no-one gets annoyed with us or anything. And it looks amazing. There’s stripes in the field, like proper lawn mowing stripes.”
There’s no concern over theft either – Hagrid is GPS-chipped, and programmed to only work within the school boundaries.
Lydia called the mower “magical”.
“He’s amazing. He just gets on and does his work,” she said.
“And I’ve got a little app that tells me if he needs some help, if he’s got himself stuck in some trees… and I’ll pop down and get him going again.”
The Small Schools Facilities Management Pilot started in July, 2024, and runs until the end of June, 2025.
