Busy lives for Raetihi girls

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 285, 2 May 1989, Page 9

Busy lives for Raetihi girls

Margaret and Wendy Olds, daughters of Pat and Gerald Olds of Makino Road, Raetihi had an unusually busy and successful year in 1988.

Margaret, a pupil at St Mary's Diocesan School for Girls in Stratford, topped the school in mathematics and obtained six A passes in the School Certificate examination. This year she has been made a prefect and her ambition is to be a vet. Margaret is off to the Solomon Islands for the May School Holidays to help paint a school. The scheme is sponsored by the Friends of the Pacific organisation although Margaret has to pay her way to the islands. Wendy is a past pupil of St Mary's Diocesan School who last year, during what would have been her 7th Form year, was selected for a Rotary Exchange to Washington State, U.S.A. for 12 months. She attended Eastmont High School which has 850 pupils and represented the High School in basketball and volleyball. As a Rotary exchange student she travelled widely within

Washington State and gave talks about New Zealand at Rotary clubs and at school. Wendy represented St Mary's

School on the Spirit of New Zealand in 1987 and is currently at Massey University studying for a Bachelor of Social Work. Margaret and Wendy are products of a school little heard of in our district, although girls

are currently attending from Waiouru, Raetihi and Turangi. Despite its relatively small size, a full roll comprises 130 of which 30 places are reserved for day girls. It has an enviable reputation both academically and

as a school for girls of all denominations for full, weekly and day pupils, according to parents. In School Certificate results for 1988, eight girls including Margaret Olds received at least five 'A' passes in the six subjects each sat and between them they received 44 'A' passes. Nationwide, only 17% receive 'A' passes. St Mary's percentage however was just over 27%. Margaret and Wendy Olds are both enjoying life to the full whilst at the school and beyond. The school's size has been no disadvantage to these two young women.