Hero photograph
 
Photo by Nadene Brouwer

Allenvale School Swim Sports

Nadene Brouwer —

Outstanding Burnside High students support Allenvale athletes at their inaugural swimming sports.

On the 26th of February, Allenvale School hosted its inaugural Swimming sports, and some wonderful Year 12 and 13 Burnside High School students volunteered to support them. Allenvale is a school in the Waimairi-iri Kāhui Ako with students that range in age between 5 and 21. They provide specialist education for ākonga who have specific learning needs.
The Burnside students eagerly awaited the arrival of students to Jellie Park, doing several warm up laps of the pool whilst the aqua aerobics class was on. When Ed and his team arrived from Allenvale, our students were in and helping with the first exciting event of the day. The events were arranged mostly in age groups, and included ball-pushing, cork throwing, fast walking, flutterboarding, relays as well as more conventional strokes. The high schoolers were there to support, encourage, build confidence, cheer on, time-keep and provide competition for the excited Allenvale students.
It was so heart-warming to see the tuakana teina (big brother) relationship that these students developed with each other over the day. The BHS team were friendly, used their initiative and helped add to the incredibly fun atmosphere that Allenvale had created. They were such wonderful role models and should be most proud of their efforts. Huge thanks to Ed Book, the kaiako at Allenvale that created this opportunity for collaboration within our community, and to the outstanding Burnside role models Clayton Cowley, Joel Fox, Georgia Fuselluer, Melissa Green, Liam Hill, Will Knight, Ruby Langley, Isabella Miller, Michaela Oliver, Enzo Pankhurst, Lexi Ross, Sina Sadeghi, Nic Witty and Christian Williams-Schwalger.