We continue to progress our ability to provide opportunities for young women to develop their skills and confidence in using power tools and other tools, and constructing items using hard materials.

On the 5 April, 20 students from Years 9-13 joined together, with the support of ex-girl Phillippa Myers from PlaceMakers, along with two wonderful young women who are apprentices at Naylor Love - Ngaru Smiler and Greer Muir - to make 10 picnic tables for the school playing fields. Mr McMillan was a tireless supporter of the students, helping them in this activity too. The girls learnt how to assemble pre-cut pieces and how to use impact drivers to complete the task. Of course, they also learnt about following instructions, working with others, problem solving and resilience so they could find a way forward when things didn’t work as expected the first time.

The girls had a wonderful time with this activity, and they worked together superbly. The entire student body is now benefitting from the Te Whare Rika Raupā students’ labours, and they are enjoying making use of the additional seating now available in the school grounds.

We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to a number of people and organisations:

PlaceMakers - particularly Philippa Myers, Trade Services Manager.

Thanks to Philippa’s tireless efforts on our behalf, we have had a range of tools and equipment donated to the school by PlaceMakers Foundation and various organisations.. We are particularly grateful to have been given a number of Makita impact drivers, along with PEP equipment - steel capped boots, high vis clothing, eye and ear protection and gloves, along with a range of tools and equipment.

Mearns and Leckie - who pre-cut the timber (supplied by PlaceMakers) and routed the tables with the names of lead students in the group.

Naylor Love - particularly Paul Stevenson, Construction Manager, along with apprentices Ngaru and Greer.

Resene - particularly Elmo Tobaiwa, who supplied us with 10L of stain to complete the tables.

Our next adventure on this journey will see 16 Year 9 and Year 10 students attending a programme at Otago Polytechnic. Over four days during Term 2, they will be learning theory and practical elements of workshop safety and construction skills, with tutor Kirsty Currie.

We are continuing to work with supporters to find a way to enable students to regularly engage in building and creating using hard materials here at school.