Eye On Ruapehu College

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 575, 28 February 1995, Page 7

Eye On Ruapehu College

By Ruapehu College pupil Tonia Lumsden New Stafff New Ruapehu College staff member, economics teacher Miss Nicola Williams, is a first year teacher straight from the halls of Massey University and Christchurch Teachers' College with a BA and a Diploma of Teaching. This young, single woman was inspired to come to Ohakune for a change, for something new. Her interests include cricket, tennis, rugby and netball. Mr Daniel J Fournier and his wife are from Canada. On exchange with typing teacher, Mrs Chapman and her family, he finds Ohakune very similarto his past location which also has great scenery. Mr Fournier attended Althouse College where he received an honours degree in Business Administration. He also took a Bachelor of Education degree before working at Gravenhurst High School. He has worked for a company that manufactured sports wear.A teacher of eight years, his interests are ice hockey, basketball, softball, tramping and travelling. Mrs Suzanne Trask is a part-time teacher. She attended Massey University and Christchurch Teachers' College, where she acquired a Bachelor of Science degree and a Diploma of Teaching, before working at Rangitahi College, Murupara. Mrs Trask has also worked with the DSIR in Palmerston North. Mrs Trask moved here because her husband works at the Tangiwai mill. Her interests and hobbies include tennis, squash, horse-riding, tramping and indoor netball. Mrs Jan Savell says she is happily married with three children. Mrs Savell, who works part time, also graduated from

Christchurch College of Education and cpntinued to stay in Christchurch to teach. Her family moved here because of the army. Along with writing for the Wanganui Chronicle, Mrs Savell' s interests include community involvement and tramping. She lists huhu grubs as her favourite food. Apart from dreaming of having 10 children, Mrs Savell is currently doing a mathematics thesis. Last but not least, maths teacher Mr Daniel Hynes is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (U.S.A.) with a bachelor degree in Science and Biology. A teacher for more than 20 years, Mr Hynes previously worked at Hawera High School and moved to Ohakune because he has interests in the area such as hunting and fishing. His other interests are travel and sports. He says his worst experience at school is filling out questionnaires. Swimming & diving As usual by this time of the year the college has held its annual swimming and diving sports, tennis championships and inter- whanau Top Town. First off was the swimming sports. On 8 February Ruapehu students took over the Burns Pool, Waiouru, but this year with a difference. New events were introduced, participation was up and support was up. All events were timed finals. These were held during the first half of the day. During the second half, non-championship one-width races were run in which there was huge interest shown by non-club swimmers. Novelty events which included a tyre race, a pj's and flutter board race, one with life belts and flippers, a balloon race and a polo ball crawl were also of interest to these swimmers, although every one joined in. The only flaw was the lack of time available as the day finished after only four or five novelty events. The winners in the championship races were: Senior Girl C Thompson, Intermediate Girl C Oh, Junior Girl K Clark, Senior Boy J Vince, Intermediate Boy J Mackay,

Junior Boy D Vince. Non-Championship winners were: Senior Girl A Mills, Intermediate Girl S J Allerby, Junior Girl D Ruki, Senior Boy D Gray, Intermediate Boy P Akurangi, Junior Boy A Brown. Tui Whanau came out first with 486 points, Huia second with 437. Third with 385 was Weka and last but not least was Kiwi with a sad 251 points. The final announcement of the day was Miss McEwing's engagement which almost outshone the whanau results. As usual the follow-on from swimming was diving at the Raetihi pool. As with swimming, there was great participation and the winners were: Senior Girl C Thompson, Intermediate Girl R Te Huia, Junior Girl J Murdie, Senior Boy A Murdie, Intermediate Boy N Gupwell and Junior Boy A Brown. First with 55 points was Huia, close behind with 48 points was Tui, third was Weka with 32 points and alas Kiwi was fourth again with 26 points. Tennis Next on the agenda was tennis. The senior champs were held in clear but cold and windy conditions which affected play and forced the senior boys' final to be postponed. On

Friday the junior champs were held. This also produced some tennis brilliance, the only flaw being the non-appearance of several junior boys. LMcCann is again the senior girls ' champion. She has now won this event barefooted four years in a row. M Smith was runner up. A O'Sullivan beat J Vince in the final to emerge as the 1995 senior boy champion.

The new junior girl champion is E Voon who beat runner up M Mowat while S Sue defeated C Weinburg for the junior boys' title. The following Wednesday hapu challenged hapu in 18 Top Town events which included a gumboot and medicine ball dash, a quiz, a tent pitch, basket ball shooting and a balloon sit. First was Tui DF. Second was Huia KH, third Weka JV with Kiwi RM in fourth position. Visits Other happenings around the school have been a visit from Fiola Robinson who gave an informative talk on student and teacher exchange programmes. Visitors have also included two advisers on the new English curriculum and Raewyn Hall, a vocational guidance adviser. The Army Band visited and was very entertaining. There was a get together of the Board of Trustees, PTA and staff families which went off well. Form Seven visited the Army Museum Stored Archives and handled real World War One diaries. The school would like to thank Angela Young for her help in organising this school visit to the Waiouru museum.