Ash/Hutt players take on the Timaru Girls’ High School defence during Wednesday’s semifinal. Photo supplied.The Ashburton College/Mt Hutt College girls’ rugby team will get a chance to defend its Aoraki title after convincingly seeing off a challenge from Timaru Girls’ High School in Wednesday’s semifinal.

Given a home semifinal in the Aoraki Secondary Schools’ girls’ rugby competition for the first time, Ash/Hutt took to the field at the Ashburton Celtic Rugby Club in front of a good, vocal home crowd and were determined to keep their stellar season rolling.

They did just that, running away with the game 69-24 to secure themselves a spot in next week’s final against Timaru’s Craighead, after the season’s other top contenders downed Timaru’s Roncalli College in the day’s other semifinal.

It was the final that was expected when you looked at the formbooks this season, but just who will take it out in Timaru next week is anyone’s guess.

The two sides have already played twice this season, taking a win each. They met in the season opener this year and Craighead won 27-20, but when they met a few weeks later, Ash/Hutt turned the tables and won 17-10.

Ash/Hutt’s semifinal opposition on Wednesday was the school that they beat in last year’s final, Timaru Girls’ High School.

Ash/Hutt won last season’s final 64-40 to cap off a stellar season and they are hopeful of defending that title and adding another to their names next week.

Ash/Hutt had a strong recent history in the competition.

They were unbeaten in the 2017 competition, lost just one game in the 2016 competition, and were unbeaten in the 2015 competition.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 24 August 2018

Ashburton College principal Ross Preece. Photo Susan SandysThe drive to introduce financial literacy as a subject in secondary schools could fail at the first hurdle – space in the curriculum and finding appropriate teachers, says Ashburton College principal Ross Preece.

He applauds the move to make students money smart but said plans to introduce Sorted in Schools to Year 9 and 10 students next year will struggle to gain traction in an already overloaded school curriculum.

The online programme is being trialled in several schools next term.

A money management programme run by the BNZ at college had been one of the most popular options in Year 10 and the Sorted in Schools programme would likely be equally as popular, Preece said.

“It’s a great idea and I totally support it, but the question is who is going to teach it and where will we fit it into the curriculum. It’s simplistic to say we’ll get schools to teach it, but we still have to teach everything else as well.”

Preece said he supported the idea of teaching financial literacy and money management at the college because it was part of real life learning, but logistically finding time or a teacher put it off the radar.

The programme, however, could find a place in the college’s new integrated learning curriculum that will be introduced for Year 9 students next year. This will see the learning across an integrated curriculum rather than being divided into specific subjects, he said.

Across many subjects secondary schools struggled to fill staff vacancies and money management would be no different, Preece said.

“It would be great if it was a must-do subject, but how do we get the teachers to teach it?

There was a dire shortage of teachers for physics, maths, digital technology, technology and lately for English teachers too, he said.

“It’s now a global market for teachers. If you head off overseas to teach you get an instant 50 per cent increase in salary, so why not?”

The Commission for Financial Capability is launching Sorted in Schools after a survey of school leavers indicated 82 per cent wanted to learn more about money in class time.

Money management and borrowing money/loans were the top two topics they wanted to learn about.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 23 August 2018

Ashburton College’s Abel Wilson and Penuel Pantaleon contest a missed shot against Cathedral College. Photo supplied.Ashburton College’s A boys’ basketball team thrashed Cathedral College on Tuesday night to nail a spot in the final of the Canterbury secondary schools’ Thomson Trophy division two competition.

The team had home court advantage for their semi-final at the EA Networks Centre and came away with a resounding victory 102-56, with the result never really looking in doubt after a strong start saw them out to a considerable lead early on.

Ashburton College coach Brian Kerr said his side applied their full court zone press this week, and got it right.

“The pressure they created caused numerous turnovers and they raced out to an early 9-2 lead before a time out was called by Cathedral,” Kerr said.

But that did nothing to stop the onslaught as the defensive intensity was relentless, and by the end of the first quarter College led 29–7.

The second quarter continued in the same vein and while finishing let the home side down at times, they were still dominant and went to halftime 51–20 ahead.

The speed of the game increased in the third and it became more open as Cathedral attempted to get back into the game, but College was able to match that challenge and extended its lead further to 77-38.

At the end of a helter-skelter fourth quarter, where both teams enjoyed the open style of play, College had well and truly sealed it, 102–56.

Kerr said his players were a lot more clinical in their approach this week.

“We’d talked about the need to get our zone press right and put on that early pressure, which we did.

“I think we’d almost taken the game away after the first quarter, however we needed to maintain that intensity with our defence, which the boys did for most of the game.”

Kerr said his side’s fast break was again good, and was allowed to function as a result of their defence.

“Our offensive structure worked pretty well when the break wasn’t on. It allowed good options whether it was shooting from the perimeter, forcing the ball inside or driving to the basket,” Kerr said.

“The whole team deserve a pat on the back. Some of the guys did a lot of grunt work defensively which allowed us to ignite our fast break.”

The guard lineup of Marc Juntilla (26 points), Quinn Ritchie (22 points) and Sam Pearce (16 points) were relentless in their defensive work and created many turnovers.

Kerr said Penuel Pantaleon (9 points) was his usual livewire self, into absolutely everything, while Fotu Hala (12 points) played well, especially on the defensive end where he was able to pick off a lot of loose passes as a result of the pressure exerted up front by the guards.

Phoenix Andrew (9 points) was another to shine.  Coming off the bench he took his opportunity and was particularly strong on the drive to the basket and was defensively sound.

Kerr said the game was a good confidence booster heading into next week’s final against Papanui High School, who upset the favoured St Thomas’ at home on Tuesday night, 81-78.

The final will be played in Christchurch, at Cowles Stadium, next Tuesday at 4pm.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 23 August 2018