Western News: June 18, 2019

10 Tuesday June 18 2019
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
New gender
neutral loos
for students
• By Tatiana Gibbs
THE SOUTH Island’s largest
high school will soon have a
gender neutral bathroom.
Burnside High School is
following a nationwide trend
of being inclusive by planning
a gender neutral toilet facility,
which is due to be completed
next month for use in term three.
Principal Phil Holstein said
the move was in response to
students who wanted a gender
diverse space where they feel
comfortable. The new bathroom
will be in the school’s central
block.
“This is a big step for us in
order to acknowledge and
recognise our gender neutral
students,” Mr Holstein said.
Burnside High follows
Beckenham Primary School
and Lincoln High School,
which also have gender neutral
bathrooms.
The trend has been supported
by the Ministry of Education,
which has funded the facility at
Burnside High. The school has a
total roll of about 2500 students
and has a LGBTQ+ club, which
has been in place for four years.
Teacher in charge of the club
Karen Healey said Burnside
High has students who feel
“uncomfortable using bathrooms
that don’t match their gender
identity.”
Burnside High
Irish dancer’s
work pays off
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding
EMME Stephenson (right)
dreams of one day travelling the
world with an international Irish
dancing company.
Since she was seven, the
Burnside High School student
has been in love with the unique
dance form – and when she is
not at school she spends her time
training.
The hard work is beginning
to pay off, with Emme, 13,
selected to attend the Australian
International Oireachtas Irish
Dance Competition on the Gold
Coast next month.
It will be Australia’s largest
Irish dancing event, attracting
more than 800 competitors from
all over the world and up to 600
spectators each day.
There are three rounds in each
competition – a hard shoe round;
light shoe round; and recall
round for the top dancers of the
competition.
It won’t be the first time
Emme has taken part in the
competition; she qualified to
compete last year.
While she didn’t make the
recall round last time, she was
listed as New Zealand’s top
dancer in her age group.
Although New Zealand’s Irish
dancing scene is small, Emme,
who attends the Swarbrick Irish
Dance school, aims to make a big
name for herself nationally and
internationally.
“I love doing it. I just
find it really fun to do. I like
competing and the friends that
you meet. It has pretty much
taken over my life,” she said.
She was ranked fifth in the
New Zealand National Irish
Dance Championships for
her age group last year, which
qualified her for the Australian
competition.
In 2017, Emme represented
New Zealand, along with a team
of dancers, at the World Irish
Dancing Championships in
Dublin and finished 34th.
Her next goal is to compete at
an international competition in
solo dancing.
Her mother Pip Stephenson
said Emme is determined, hardworking
and committed to going
as far as she can in Irish dancing.
She said dancing has taught
her time-management and selfdiscipline,
which has helped her
to achieve good results at school.
SCHOOLS
WESTERN NEWS