Ashburton Courier: August 13, 2020

Ashburton College
Individual Excellence in aSupportive Learning Environment
News
Issue 21
13 August 2020
Message From ThePrincipal
Annual College Ball
Ourannual Senior Students’ Ball took place at the
AshburtonTrust EventCentreonFridaynightlast
week. This event had originally been scheduled
forTermTwo but,ofcourse,had beenpostponed
duetoCOVID.
This is always agreat night and is an undoubted
highlightonmanyofour students’social calendar.
Everyone enjoys the evening,and thechance to dress up andwalk down
the RedCarpet is enjoyedbythe attendees,and the supporters who can
viewthe students coming into the venue!
Can Iacknowledge asignificant number of businesses, community
organisations and individuals who ensurethat anystudentwho wished
to go,couldattend.This generosityishugely appreciated.
Increasing Cultural Diversity
Our College is increasingly culturally diverse which, ofcourse, isa
reflection onthe growing ethnic diversity ofour community. We have
about1200students on our roll and of these 58%are European/Pakeha,
while 13% areMāori,11% Pasifikaand 11% Filipino.
We celebratethis cultural mix and becoming increasingly multi-cultural
(a trendthatwill accelerate when theAfghanistan refugees arrive). There
is still confusion around the meaning of the terms multi-cultural and
bi-cultural! Whilst most people seem to understand multi-culturalism
(possibly because we allrecognisethis as an increasingfactorwithin our
community), there seems however tobealevel of misunderstanding
about whatbi-culturalismactuallymeans.
The widespread misunderstanding is often that itmeans Māori and
Pakeha. This is incorrect. Itactually means Māori (as tangata whenua)
and other (non-Māori). Once this was explained to me, Ihad abetter
understandingmyself and so IthoughtIwouldsharethis knowledge.
College Sports Teams
Lately Ihave been getting around many ofour College sports teams’
home games. Ialways enjoy getting out to watch our numerous teams
in action. If there isaspecial home game coming up, then please let
me know and Iwill make the efforttoattend. CanIcongratulate all our
teamsonthe waytheyplaythe game.
College Exam Week
Finally,can Iremindour seniors andtheir parents that‘in-College exams’
arestarting in acoupleofweeks'time (weekbeginning 31 August).These
have atwo-fold purpose. Firstly, they enable teachers and students to
establish the level of preparedness forNCEA examsinNovember. They
give students achance toattempt external exam questions and for
teachers to establish just where the gapsare in students’ learning.
Thesecond purpose is to provide aset of gradesifthe student is not able
to sit their exams inNovember. There is always ahandful of students
who are forced, through unfortunate circumstances, to apply for a
‘derived grade’. In such cases they are awarded the grade they gained
in the College exams.
Now would be a great time to start some revision, rather than trying to
‘cramitin’the nightbefore.
Many thanks.
Ross Preece
Principal •Tumuaki
Information
Transition Department–EventsUpdate
TertiaryStudy Information
We are atthe time ofyear where students going to tertiary study in 2021
are gathering information, making decisions, and beginning application
processes,asfollows:
Universityand PolytechHalls of Residence Applications
HallsofResidenceapplications arenow open online.
Course Planning for 2021
Universityliaisonstaff areinthe process of booking to visit AshCollthis term
to help students plantheir course of study for2021.
Remainingdates are:
Victoria UniversityofWellington – 09 September
Auckland University – 09September
Lincoln University – 09September
Otago University – 16September
2020University Open Days –
Further Information is Available on theirWebsites
•VictoriaUniversity
–On-campus:Friday21August
•CanterburyUniversity
–On-campus:Thursday 27 August
•AucklandUniversity
–On-campus:Saturday29August
•MasseyUniversity
–Virtual(online) Open Days
04 and 05 September
Andalso:
Wellington Campus
–TasterDay:21August
ManawatuCampus
–TasterDay:11September
Auckland Campus
–TasterDay:12September
•WaikatoUniversity
–Virtual(online) Open Days:
13 and 14 August
•AUT University
–On-campus:Saturday29August
Information
Lip Sync 2020!
Theeverpopular Lip Sync will hit the College Auditorium stage
this year -onTuesday18August,7:00pm.
Events
Students will competeeither
individuallyoringroups in
Junior and Senior sections,
beforethe hotly-contested
House Fest.
TheStudentExecutivewill
then take on the lip-syncing
staff to round off the
evening's entertainment.
Tickets: $5:00. Available from the College Office -
03 308 4193 or info@ashcoll.school.nz
Very Successful RYDA(RotaryYouth
Driver Awareness) Day
Held at the Hotel Ashburton on Monday 03August, for all Year 12
students, the daywas again successful and arealityreminder of the life
and death importanceofdriver awareness.
These workshops for schools are subsidised by Road Safety Education
and Regional Partners. Assuch, College acknowledges the support ofthe
Ashburton District Councilinenabling thisimportant training to takeplace.
Students moved through the various workshops, covering and discussing
many aspectsofsafety, potential hazards and howtoavoid irreversible risks.
Thefacts areharrowinginreal life with students advised that, last year,353
people were killed on New Zealand roads, and many times this number
seriously injured. Approximately forty people are killed or injured on our
roads everyday.
POSTPONED (COVID LEVEL 2)
(Pictured left,
lefttoright):
Brie Rudolph,
Marlese Schoonderbeek
andAngus Stewart
distracting driver
Jacob Swan (obscured),
highlighting someof
the aspects whichcan
divertdriverattention.
Outside, students were
giveninformation across
safetybelt use and wear,
tyre treads, an upright
driver seat (with the
opposite pictured right),
speed,stopping distance
times, and following
distances.
Atorn, frayed ortwisted
beltloses 50% of its effectiveness, and the differencebetween travellingat
50kmand 60kmwas graphically displayed.
(Pictured above): Four year old‘Jack’has run out on the road in a50kmspeed
limit area. Driving at 50kmanhour, driver BobVerrall,could stop in time.
(Pictured below): By travelling at 60km/h in a50km/hour zone, the extra
10kmmeantthe driver wasunable to stop beforehitting the child. For the
sakeof10km/h,alifewas changed, andthatoffamily and friends
During the day students were required to note down intheir certificate
diary anything that could lower their risks as adriver orpassenger, all
aligning to the theme of:
‘MyLife: My Choices –Toku Ao:Oku Kowhiringa and
GPS –Goals,Plans and Strategies/Ngā whāinga, Mahre, Rautakihoki.
Events
‘FabulousLas Vegas Nevada’: College Ball
Averysuccessful eventwas held on Fridaynight07August and,again,
we thank the manysectors of the communityfor their involvementand
support.Theeffectiveness and buoyancyofthisannualhighlightonthe
College calendar wouldn’t be as significantasitiswithout the help and
input of the community –across businesses, parents and caregivers,
co-operation around the road closure and the high number of
spectators who viewedthe students entering the venue.
TheCollege’s appreciation
goes to DeputyPrincipal
Helen Shore-Taylor forher
oversightofthe organisation
and to the College’sBall
Committee fortheir
commitment, planning and
hardwork.
Giventhe COVID-19 year this
has been, and delays to the
initial June date,the event
wasall themoreexciting
forparticipants as earlier in the year it certainly didn’t presentasaviable
option.
Ball Committee Members were: Jacob Gray and Lucy Moore
(Co-Leaders), and committee members Victoria Binnie, Annabel Dolan,
Buddhika Ekanayake, Blake Farr, Megan Harrison, Emily King,
Shasha Wategedara, Emily Wilson.
We acknowledge with real appreciation -Roger, Casey, James and Travis
from the AshburtonTrust EventCentre; Denise and her team from Balloons
and Flowers for the decorations; the band ‘Double Talk’; the team at
Somerset Grocer forthe food; photographer Tony StewartfromPhotoshots;
Charlie Banks and Henry
Hobbs for standing in the
cold to open the doors of
the vehicles as students
arrived; Brent Gray for
announcing the names of
students as they arrived;
Spray Marks Ashburton for
traffic management ofthe
event; Neumann’s Tyres
for allowing their yard to
be the right-of-way for the
Ball attendees’vehicles; Rural TransportLtd formoving the tiered seating for
spectators to have abetter view of the event; and the manyAshCollstaff for
giving up their time to supervise the event.
Princess,Prince; Queen, King;and Best DressedStudents:
Towards the end of the evening the traditional Princess, Prince; Queen and
King; and Best Dressed students were chosen –bystaff. This year’s winners
were:
Prince: Blake Farr; Princess: Mahina Pongia;
King: Kyle Cabangun; Queen: Willow Diedricks;
Best DressedYear12student: AnnyaRawlings.
Best DressedYear13student: Daniel Lockington Teokotai.
(Pictured above,clockwise):
HenryChapman (Head Boy)
totally into the theme,and
HarmynMcLean;
BobbyTomokinoand
Sayime Metuatini; Liam Sullivan
and CharlotteGray.
Helen Shore-Taylor said the
students were averyinclusive
group,with allinvolving
themselves in the evening’s
entertainment, the music,
and making good use of the
photobooths,withbehaviour
respectful of the flavour of the
evening. Helen said thatbythe
end of the evening the dance
floor was‘rocking’.
Next week we will look at some
additional photos from the event.