Ashburton College’s girls’ under-18 coxed quad of Harriet Leverton (cox), Emma Stagg, Mollie Gibson, Aidan Elvines, Grace Adams won silver at the South Island secondary schools’ rowing champs. Photo suppliedAshburton College rowers came home from the South Island Secondary Schools’ rowing regatta at Twizel’s Lake Ruataniwha at the weekend with two silver medals to show for their efforts.

Just two weeks out from the national secondary schools’ championships, Mollie Gibson and Aidan Elvines teamed up to take silver in the girls’ under-18 pair, while Emma Stagg, Gibson, Elvines and Grace Adams, along with coxswain Harriet Leverton, also took silver in the girls’ under-18 coxed quad.

It was a regatta of super close finishes, and Gibson just missed out on two other podium placings.

She was fourth in the girls’ under-18 single, and fourth in the girls’ under-18 double with Stagg.

Ged Wall also put in a stellar performance, finishing sixth in the boys’ under-18 single A final, while a number of rowers made B finals.

Elvines was second in the girls’ under-18 single B final, while Stagg was third, and Elvines and Grace Adams finished fifth in the girls’ under-18 double B final.

The South Island Secondary Schools’ Champs was a big three days of racing at Lake Ruataniwha for the young rowers, and they now faced an intense two weeks of training leading into the pinnacle event of their season, the Maadi Cup, which is this year being held at Lake Karapirio, near Cambridge.

The Maadi Cup is set to get under way on March 25.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 14 March 2019

Ross Preece Ashburton College principalA surge in enrolments at Ashburton College has put pressure on teaching space and teaching resources, says principal Ross Preece.

While most schools anticipate their roll for the year will exceed Ministry of Education estimates, the extra 65 students enrolled at the college this year was certainly at the upper end, he said.

A growing roll was a good problem for any school, but it did come with problems in terms of accommodating the extra pupils, Preece said.

“It’s certainly a pleasing start to the year but in some cases we’ve had to accommodate these students by making some classes larger than we’d like.

“There’s definitely not too many free rooms around the school now.”

The extra students were spread across all years.

While the ministry would fund the school to employ additional staff, recruitment would come with its own challenges, he said.

The pool of teachers looking for new positions was never large and at the start of a new school year most would have found jobs, Preece said.

The roll surge comes at the same time as the school has introduced a new pastoral care system, Ako,  that puts students into vertical age groups of around 16 – 20 with one staff member assigned to each group.

These replace traditional family forms and are designed to create a ‘family’ group across all ages that a student will remain in during their time at college.

Staff had just completed a full day of interviews for the Ako groups and parents he had spoken to after those interviews were very positive about the system, Preece said.

“I talked to a number of parents as they were leaving and there wasn’t one who wasn’t complimentary about the process.

“Staff went above and beyond during the long day of interviews and say it was an unfailingly positive experience.”

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 8 March 2019

John Morrison Harness Driver. Photo suppliedHe’ll admit to taking a cautious glance at it every now and then, but don’t think you can lead John Morrison into a debate about his chances of winning the junior drivers’ premiership this season just yet.

The in-form young horseman now sits level with Sheree Tomlinson with 36 wins for the season at the top of said premiership but with five months of racing still to come, he’s not getting too far ahead of himself preferring to take things week by week.

And this weekend, he’s even allowing himself a bit of time off.

Instead of trekking down south, like he has for almost every meeting this season, Morrison has instead decided to stay on the West Coast for the weekend.

“I’ve got a couple of my own in over there,” he said.

“If I had a really good book of drives, I would have done it (gone to Invercargill too), but I was looking at maybe just the one or two so I decided I’d stay on the Coast and have a bit of a break.”

But while he’s taking a break this weekend, don’t expect it to happen too often for the rest of the season.

Especially now the lure of travelling to meetings in Southland has been made that much more appealing.

Announcements last week by both Air New Zealand and then Jetstar have seen costs for drivers heading down South for meetings cut by almost 50 per cent.

“You’d be looking at about $400 return normally, but it’s considerably less than that now by the looks of it.

“That makes it great for heading down there because there’s not as much pressure to get a win or two to make it worthwhile.”

Morrison’s weekend will still be busy enough though without heading to the deep south.

He’s at Forbury on Thursday night with a big book of drives before heading back to Christchurch and then packing up for the Coast on Friday morning.

While not exuding confidence, Morrison is quite hopeful of a forward showing for his two chances at Patterson Park, Kiwi Bloke and No Fears.

“They’re both good enough to be a chance in their races, but they might need that ounce of luck.

“I’ve been really happy with Kiwi Bloke’s last two runs; he just needs things to fall into place and No Fears, well we know he’s got the ability he just needs to do it right.”

As well as his own two runners Morrison will also have high hopes for his drive in Friday’s feature, the Margo Nyhan and Peter Davis Kawatiri Cup, Di Caprio.

The Brian O’Meara-trained runner was a last start winner of the Hororata Cup and looks a prime chance to make it three wins in a row.

“Brian wouldn’t be taking him all the way over there for nothing and he’s got to be a good chance.

“But I think he’s going to be even better next year; he’s pretty exciting.”

© The Ashburton Guardian - 7 March 2019