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<strong>Ashburton</strong> College<br />
Individual Excellence in aSupportive Learning Environment<br />
News<br />
Issue 21<br />
<strong>13</strong> <strong>August</strong> <strong>2020</strong><br />
Message From ThePrincipal<br />
Annual College Ball<br />
Ourannual Senior Students’ Ball took place at the<br />
<strong>Ashburton</strong>Trust EventCentreonFridaynightlast<br />
week. This event had originally been scheduled<br />
forTermTwo but,ofcourse,had beenpostponed<br />
duetoCOVID.<br />
This is always agreat night and is an undoubted<br />
highlightonmanyofour students’social calendar.<br />
Everyone enjoys the evening,and thechance to dress up andwalk down<br />
the RedCarpet is enjoyedbythe attendees,and the supporters who can<br />
viewthe students coming into the venue!<br />
Can Iacknowledge asignificant number of businesses, community<br />
organisations and individuals who ensurethat anystudentwho wished<br />
to go,couldattend.This generosityishugely appreciated.<br />
Increasing Cultural Diversity<br />
Our College is increasingly culturally diverse which, ofcourse, isa<br />
reflection onthe growing ethnic diversity ofour community. We have<br />
about1200students on our roll and of these 58%are European/Pakeha,<br />
while <strong>13</strong>% areMāori,11% Pasifikaand 11% Filipino.<br />
We celebratethis cultural mix and becoming increasingly multi-cultural<br />
(a trendthatwill accelerate when theAfghanistan refugees arrive). There<br />
is still confusion around the meaning of the terms multi-cultural and<br />
bi-cultural! Whilst most people seem to understand multi-culturalism<br />
(possibly because we allrecognisethis as an increasingfactorwithin our<br />
community), there seems however tobealevel of misunderstanding<br />
about whatbi-culturalismactuallymeans.<br />
The widespread misunderstanding is often that itmeans Māori and<br />
Pakeha. This is incorrect. Itactually means Māori (as tangata whenua)<br />
and other (non-Māori). Once this was explained to me, Ihad abetter<br />
understandingmyself and so IthoughtIwouldsharethis knowledge.<br />
College Sports Teams<br />
Lately Ihave been getting around many ofour College sports teams’<br />
home games. Ialways enjoy getting out to watch our numerous teams<br />
in action. If there isaspecial home game coming up, then please let<br />
me know and Iwill make the efforttoattend. CanIcongratulate all our<br />
teamsonthe waytheyplaythe game.<br />
College Exam Week<br />
Finally,can Iremindour seniors andtheir parents that‘in-College exams’<br />
arestarting in acoupleofweeks'time (weekbeginning 31 <strong>August</strong>).These<br />
have atwo-fold purpose. Firstly, they enable teachers and students to<br />
establish the level of preparedness forNCEA examsinNovember. They<br />
give students achance toattempt external exam questions and for<br />
teachers to establish just where the gapsare in students’ learning.<br />
Thesecond purpose is to provide aset of gradesifthe student is not able<br />
to sit their exams inNovember. There is always ahandful of students<br />
who are forced, through unfortunate circumstances, to apply for a<br />
‘derived grade’. In such cases they are awarded the grade they gained<br />
in the College exams.<br />
Now would be a great time to start some revision, rather than trying to<br />
‘cramitin’the nightbefore.<br />
Many thanks.<br />
Ross Preece<br />
Principal •Tumuaki<br />
Information<br />
Transition Department–EventsUpdate<br />
TertiaryStudy Information<br />
We are atthe time ofyear where students going to tertiary study in 2021<br />
are gathering information, making decisions, and beginning application<br />
processes,asfollows:<br />
Universityand PolytechHalls of Residence Applications<br />
HallsofResidenceapplications arenow open online.<br />
Course Planning for 2021<br />
Universityliaisonstaff areinthe process of booking to visit AshCollthis term<br />
to help students plantheir course of study for2021.<br />
Remainingdates are:<br />
Victoria UniversityofWellington – 09 September<br />
Auckland University – 09September<br />
Lincoln University – 09September<br />
Otago University – 16September<br />
<strong>2020</strong>University Open Days –<br />
Further Information is Available on theirWebsites<br />
•VictoriaUniversity<br />
–On-campus:Friday21<strong>August</strong><br />
•CanterburyUniversity<br />
–On-campus:Thursday 27 <strong>August</strong><br />
•AucklandUniversity<br />
–On-campus:Saturday29<strong>August</strong><br />
•MasseyUniversity<br />
–Virtual(online) Open Days<br />
04 and 05 September<br />
Andalso:<br />
Wellington Campus<br />
–TasterDay:21<strong>August</strong><br />
ManawatuCampus<br />
–TasterDay:11September<br />
Auckland Campus<br />
–TasterDay:12September<br />
•WaikatoUniversity<br />
–Virtual(online) Open Days:<br />
<strong>13</strong> and 14 <strong>August</strong><br />
•AUT University<br />
–On-campus:Saturday29<strong>August</strong><br />
Information<br />
Lip Sync <strong>2020</strong>!<br />
Theeverpopular Lip Sync will hit the College Auditorium stage<br />
this year -onTuesday18<strong>August</strong>,7:00pm.<br />
Events<br />
Students will competeeither<br />
individuallyoringroups in<br />
Junior and Senior sections,<br />
beforethe hotly-contested<br />
House Fest.<br />
TheStudentExecutivewill<br />
then take on the lip-syncing<br />
staff to round off the<br />
evening's entertainment.<br />
Tickets: $5:00. Available from the College Office -<br />
03 308 4193 or info@ashcoll.school.nz<br />
Very Successful RYDA(RotaryYouth<br />
Driver Awareness) Day<br />
Held at the Hotel <strong>Ashburton</strong> on Monday 03<strong>August</strong>, for all Year 12<br />
students, the daywas again successful and arealityreminder of the life<br />
and death importanceofdriver awareness.<br />
These workshops for schools are subsidised by Road Safety Education<br />
and Regional Partners. Assuch, College acknowledges the support ofthe<br />
<strong>Ashburton</strong> District Councilinenabling thisimportant training to takeplace.<br />
Students moved through the various workshops, covering and discussing<br />
many aspectsofsafety, potential hazards and howtoavoid irreversible risks.<br />
Thefacts areharrowinginreal life with students advised that, last year,353<br />
people were killed on New Zealand roads, and many times this number<br />
seriously injured. Approximately forty people are killed or injured on our<br />
roads everyday.<br />
POSTPONED (COVID LEVEL 2)<br />
(Pictured left,<br />
lefttoright):<br />
Brie Rudolph,<br />
Marlese Schoonderbeek<br />
andAngus Stewart<br />
distracting driver<br />
Jacob Swan (obscured),<br />
highlighting someof<br />
the aspects whichcan<br />
divertdriverattention.<br />
Outside, students were<br />
giveninformation across<br />
safetybelt use and wear,<br />
tyre treads, an upright<br />
driver seat (with the<br />
opposite pictured right),<br />
speed,stopping distance<br />
times, and following<br />
distances.<br />
Atorn, frayed ortwisted<br />
beltloses 50% of its effectiveness, and the differencebetween travellingat<br />
50kmand 60kmwas graphically displayed.<br />
(Pictured above): Four year old‘Jack’has run out on the road in a50kmspeed<br />
limit area. Driving at 50kmanhour, driver BobVerrall,could stop in time.<br />
(Pictured below): By travelling at 60km/h in a50km/hour zone, the extra<br />
10kmmeantthe driver wasunable to stop beforehitting the child. For the<br />
sakeof10km/h,alifewas changed, andthatoffamily and friends<br />
During the day students were required to note down intheir certificate<br />
diary anything that could lower their risks as adriver orpassenger, all<br />
aligning to the theme of:<br />
‘MyLife: My Choices –Toku Ao:Oku Kowhiringa and<br />
GPS –Goals,Plans and Strategies/Ngā whāinga, Mahre, Rautakihoki.<br />
Events<br />
‘FabulousLas Vegas Nevada’: College Ball<br />
Averysuccessful eventwas held on Fridaynight07<strong>August</strong> and,again,<br />
we thank the manysectors of the communityfor their involvementand<br />
support.Theeffectiveness and buoyancyofthisannualhighlightonthe<br />
College calendar wouldn’t be as significantasitiswithout the help and<br />
input of the community –across businesses, parents and caregivers,<br />
co-operation around the road closure and the high number of<br />
spectators who viewedthe students entering the venue.<br />
TheCollege’s appreciation<br />
goes to DeputyPrincipal<br />
Helen Shore-Taylor forher<br />
oversightofthe organisation<br />
and to the College’sBall<br />
Committee fortheir<br />
commitment, planning and<br />
hardwork.<br />
Giventhe COVID-19 year this<br />
has been, and delays to the<br />
initial June date,the event<br />
wasall themoreexciting<br />
forparticipants as earlier in the year it certainly didn’t presentasaviable<br />
option.<br />
Ball Committee Members were: Jacob Gray and Lucy Moore<br />
(Co-Leaders), and committee members Victoria Binnie, Annabel Dolan,<br />
Buddhika Ekanayake, Blake Farr, Megan Harrison, Emily King,<br />
Shasha Wategedara, Emily Wilson.<br />
We acknowledge with real appreciation -Roger, Casey, James and Travis<br />
from the <strong>Ashburton</strong>Trust EventCentre; Denise and her team from Balloons<br />
and Flowers for the decorations; the band ‘Double Talk’; the team at<br />
Somerset Grocer forthe food; photographer Tony StewartfromPhotoshots;<br />
Charlie Banks and Henry<br />
Hobbs for standing in the<br />
cold to open the doors of<br />
the vehicles as students<br />
arrived; Brent Gray for<br />
announcing the names of<br />
students as they arrived;<br />
Spray Marks <strong>Ashburton</strong> for<br />
traffic management ofthe<br />
event; Neumann’s Tyres<br />
for allowing their yard to<br />
be the right-of-way for the<br />
Ball attendees’vehicles; Rural TransportLtd formoving the tiered seating for<br />
spectators to have abetter view of the event; and the manyAshCollstaff for<br />
giving up their time to supervise the event.<br />
Princess,Prince; Queen, King;and Best DressedStudents:<br />
Towards the end of the evening the traditional Princess, Prince; Queen and<br />
King; and Best Dressed students were chosen –bystaff. This year’s winners<br />
were:<br />
Prince: Blake Farr; Princess: Mahina Pongia;<br />
King: Kyle Cabangun; Queen: Willow Diedricks;<br />
Best DressedYear12student: AnnyaRawlings.<br />
Best DressedYear<strong>13</strong>student: Daniel Lockington Teokotai.<br />
(Pictured above,clockwise):<br />
HenryChapman (Head Boy)<br />
totally into the theme,and<br />
HarmynMcLean;<br />
BobbyTomokinoand<br />
Sayime Metuatini; Liam Sullivan<br />
and CharlotteGray.<br />
Helen Shore-Taylor said the<br />
students were averyinclusive<br />
group,with allinvolving<br />
themselves in the evening’s<br />
entertainment, the music,<br />
and making good use of the<br />
photobooths,withbehaviour<br />
respectful of the flavour of the<br />
evening. Helen said thatbythe<br />
end of the evening the dance<br />
floor was‘rocking’.<br />
Next week we will look at some<br />
additional photos from the event.