Latest news with #DunstanHighSchool
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Student art front and centre
The artwork of Dunstan High School students on display at Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery in celebration of Youth Week. PHOTO: ELLA JENKINS Alexandra Library and Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery hosted an exhibitions of Dunstan High School students' artwork in celebration of Youth Week. Puna Rangitahi Alexandra & Districts Youth Trust youth worker Courtney La'ulu said the idea to hold an art exhibition during youth week came from wanting to something different this year. A passion for the creative community and a desire to foster collaboration within the community gave her the idea to reach out to the Alexandra Library, Central Stories and Dunstan High School to highlight the talents of youth in Central Otago. Art from different year groups were on display at both Central Stories and the Library. A variety of artworks in different styles were provided by the Dunstan High School art department. Self-portraits, lino prints, cubism and architectural paintings were on display at Central Stories. Two sets of lockers were also on display, painted in a protest art style. "It was awesome just like being able to give the youth a space to be able to show off some of the talents for starters that we've got in our area and to be able to have them feel like they've got that place of belonging in our community as well." Ms La'ulu said the exhibition had been a huge success and she would not be surprised if the event was carried in the years to come. "We might look at getting more schools involved or doing something different, it could be a large mural or something like that," she said. Celebrating the community together for Youth Week in a creative space was something she was passionate about continuing, Ms La'ulu said.
NZ Herald
19-05-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
First XV rugby shakeup shock: South Island boys schools plot breakaway competition
The new competition would, therefore, include up to eight schools across Canterbury and Tasman, and six schools in Otago and Southland. 'We are excited about the impact this could have on our boys and communities.' Christchurch Boys' High School drive hard against Southland Boys' High School. Photo / Supplied At present, the top schools in the Crusaders catchment area contest the Miles Toyota Premiership. This season includes Nelson College, Marlborough Boys' College, Christchurch Boys' High School, Christ's College, St Thomas of Canterbury College, St Bede's College, St Andrew's College, Shirley Boys' High School, Rangiora High School and Selwyn Schools Combined. Timaru Boys' High School is contesting the lower tier championship, but are favoured to gain promotion back to the top tier this season. In the Highlanders' catchment, it's the Freeman Roofing Southern Schools Rugby Championship. There are 18 teams split across three divisions, with the top tier this season involving Southland Boys' High School's First and Second XVs, King's High School, Otago Boys' High School, John McGlashan College and Dunstan High School. The new structure would exclude co-ed schools like Rangiora High School, the Selwyn Combined Schools, St Andrew's College and Dunstan High School. Rangiora High School and St Andrew's College confirmed they had not been included in the proposed competition. 'I've not heard so much as a murmur,' said Bruce Kearney, Rangiora High School principal. Rangiora High School principal Bruce Kearney. The snub comes after co-ed schools had a weekend to remember against traditional powerhouse boys' schools. Dunstan High School in Alexandra travelled to Dunedin to tip up their more fancied opponents – Otago Boys' High School. Dunstan's 22-19 win was celebrated well beyond Central Otago, with Feilding High School congratulating their fellow co-ed school on social media. In Rolleston on Saturday, it was a similar story with Selwyn Schools Combined coming from behind to beat St Bede's College 18-12. Turning with the wind at their backs in the second half, the home side had all the momentum and sealed the game with a late try. Selwyn Schools will cease to exist in 2026 with Rolleston College electing to go it alone. Lincoln High School, Darfield High School, Ellesmere College and Akaroa Area School plan to continue in a new arrangement. It was almost three big scalps for the co-ed schools with Rangiora High School falling just short of spoiling rugby's return to Christ's College's Upper Field in a 38-37 win for College. Under a single-sex competition, their students could miss out on top-tier schoolboy rugby. That's long been an issue for certain schools in both regions. The flow-on effect is that those schools are prone to either losing their brightest rugby talent to bigger schools, by choice or by scholarship, or they're never even considered as an option by those who are in-zone but enrol elsewhere. Harrison Inch (holding trophy) and Saumaki Saumaki (right), two of the standout players for Nelson College in 2024. Photo / JDW Photography Details of how the competition would work aren't yet known, but combining the entire South Island would require a huge amount of travel. Invercargill to Nelson is a 12-and-a-half hour drive – or an expensive exercise by plane. But travel isn't something the top sides shy away from. Southland Boys' High School First XV coach Jason Dermody told the Herald last month that his side needs to travel to face the best opposition, referring to the distance that they'd travelled in pre-season. 'We've got to travel to play the best teams because if we just play the teams down here, we just think we're good,' said Dermody at the time. Southland Boys' High School First XV coach Jason Dermody. Photo / Debbie Fahey Photography His side had travelled to Auckland and Christchurch for matches with King's College and CBHS in preseason. Last year, they made the trip to Nelson to contest the South Island final. That could become a more familiar journey under the proposed competition. It will be a bold pathway, both literally and figuratively, for the single-sex collective. 'At the heart of this kaupapa is a shared desire to enhance the experience of boys' education. These ideas are still in development, and we are working carefully to ensure they reflect the values, needs, and aspirations of all our school communities,' the joint statement read.
Otago Daily Times
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
‘Dribbles' dedicated to the cause
Francis Parker and his daughter, Harriet. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED Parker: When I first moved down to Owaka, people thought that I liked to talk a lot. But the main reason was when I first started playing premier rugby, I thought I was pretty good at drinking quickly. I was playing hooker, and I had both props next to me and challenged them to drink. At the end of the night I had about four handles lined up while they were still keeping up with each other. I dribbled over myself and just talked a bit of rubbish as well. Where did you grow up and go to school? Born in England, moved out to New Zealand when I was 10, and I went through Dunstan High School. How did you end up in South Otago? My parents took over the Owaka pub. They hadn't been publicans before — they just thought it would be a good challenge. I was doing part-time work at the top pub in Alex, so I had my bar manager's licence. They were after a duty manager down there, so I said I'd come help for a year or so, but I kind of just stayed there. Tell me about your playing career in rugby. I think I played two games of First XV rugby for Dunstan. I was more of a football player back then. I managed to get one game for the Alexandra premier team at fullback when I was 18 or 19. Anton Oliver played for Toko that day, and he ran over me a good four or five times to score three or four tries. That sort of put me off rugby for a bit. I played Fletcher Cup football for Alexandra when they were in the football league in Dunedin. And then when I came to Owaka, it was either travel half an hour to play football or try my hand at rugby again. You enjoy playing for the mighty Swamp Hens? There have been lots of memorable occasions as an Owaka rugby player. Most games that we win are quite well celebrated. I remember playing in my 150th game and I think I'd only won 11 matches for Owaka. We've got a lot better since then. You've played over 200 games now? Yeah, 204, something like that. I was on the bench a couple of weeks ago because we were short, but I've moved into a sort of assistant coach role this year. If the legs are short, I'll put the boots on, but I'm hoping to slither off into retirement. And cricket? Yeah, still playing cricket. It used to be more of a social thing with the mates over the summer because I was more of a softballer back in the day. But when I moved down to South Otago, there wasn't much softball. So I turned my hand to cricket. What's been the highlight of your cricket career? Hitting 24 runs off an Eden Carson over in between matches at the Southern Region T20 finals day last year. A couple of the Sparks turned up just to see the kids and run a few drills and stuff. Owaka were in the third-fourth playoff, and between our game and the final, one of our players had jacked up a couple of the Sparks to have a wee go with the kids. But we ended up batting. Emma Black bowled Jeremy Gray out first ball, so I had a bat. This was two or three stubbies deep, probably. Eden came on and yeah, the eyes lit up. Outside playing, what sort of administration and coaching roles have you held? Parker plays a club rugby game for Owaka. I'm not the most organised person in the world. I was president of the Owaka Cricket Club for a couple of years just because nobody else wanted to do it. But I wasn't very good. We didn't get anything improved under my leadership. I'm on committees and things, but I don't see myself as a coach or a manager or anything. I'm more than happy to help out. You tell me what to do and I'll do it. Cam Burgess, who's coaching Owaka this year, his assistant coach who helped him last year wanted to play again this year. So he asked me if I wanted to help out at the forwards, so I was just like, yeah, I'm not a coach but I'll give you a hand. Would it be fair to say you found your calling writing about, talking about and promoting South Otago sport? When I left school, I went to uni for a brief time and my goal was to do something with journalism or that sort of film and media direction. It didn't last very long at uni but, yeah, I've managed to fall into it. I don't know if it's a calling but I really enjoy it. I guess I've been pretty lucky along the way. A lot of people have sort of managed to push me in the right direction. How many hours a week do you devote to writing yarns for the ODT and doing all your social media? I'd say maybe seven or eight. Back in the early days, it would be up around 15 hours. I didn't really have any idea what I was doing, but now I've got templates set up. Saturday nights and Sunday mornings are usually the busy time, but it runs quite smoothly now. Do you feel that sports like rugby and cricket are still a huge part of a community like South Otago? Absolutely. That's hit home this year with Clinton pulling out of our rugby competition. It's dead in the town over the winter. They've got a couple of junior teams, but in terms of the buzz that a premier rugby game has on a community, it's a massive hole. I do think it's a gathering. It's where the community can gather together and enjoy each other's company for 80 minutes. I think it's very important. How do you deal with people criticising the odd thing you write? That's probably the hardest thing. It's not so much the outside noise, it's the internal, and being part of a team like Owaka who haven't always been the best team on the field. Writing about them was difficult back in the start. I'd like to hope that I'm not that one-eyed, but it was hard to write how badly Owaka played when I was part of it. It's worse when you're playing cricket and you take some wickets or you score some runs. I don't want to write myself up, and it's always hard hearing people laugh and say you only write about yourself. But I've got pretty thick skin. The Bandits, the Royal Landfill — did you invent all these names or were they around before you arrived? There'd always been a couple associated with teams like the Clutha Steamers. But with cricket, I was asked to make up names for them. And then from there, the rugby ones sort of just came as well. The grounds ... I got a bit of stick when I named them. The Royal Landfill is a particular favourite of mine. The Cosmic Bullring. Swamp Hen Park. The only thing you love more than South Otago sport is Liverpool football. How long have you supported the greatest club in the world? It was the Champions League final in Istanbul in 2005 that really made me love Liverpool. I've always supported them, but in terms of actual loyalty, it was the 2005 final. I took the morning off school to watch it. Got in a hell of a lot of trouble with parents and teachers, because they knew exactly what I was doing. But you weren't born in Liverpool, and your parents aren't Liverpudlians? No, my father is a staunch Huddersfield Town fan. He played a lot of football in England at a pretty high level. We lived probably about half an hour away from Bradford, and Bradford City and Huddersfield have a good rivalry. Do you follow any other sports? Owaka fans cheer on Parker during his 200th game of rugby for the club. I'm a bit of a closet American sport fan. I'm a big baseball fan, and I was a massive Barry Bonds fan. I try and watch as much baseball as I can. I don't keep up with the players, who's playing here and there, but if there's a game on, I always watch it. I watch most sports. And if I put you on the spot and asked you to pick a winner in South Otago club rugby this season? Clutha. Although West Taieri have hit their straps in the weekend, so whoever stays the fittest out of those two teams will win. That will be the final, I'm picking. Owaka? Well, we got our first win in the weekend. We've got Clutha, West Taieri and Crescent in the next three weeks. We'll defend our bottom four title, I'm going to say that. What's your real job? I work for AsureQuality as a meat inspector. Up to our elbows in dead animals all day. I'm also the trainer here, and I've just recently had six trainees being passed off. You're a husband and a father? Yes, had our first aerobics competition in Invercargill yesterday. It was outstanding. To be fair, I couldn't do what I do without Maree, my wife, and Harriet, my daughter. They're amazing. Marie has shouldered a lot of responsibility over the years. Harriet turns 10 in July. She's a keen netballer. And she came away with a couple of golds from her first aerobics tournament, so she's stoked. Your little brother, Rowan, died in a quadbike accident on Boxing Day, 2012, at the age of 16. What was Rowan like? He was a nice fella. Yeah, just one of those boys that everyone likes. He was sporty. I coached his under-15 rugby team. He played lock. Probably my proudest moment on a footy field was when he scored in his first ever game of rugby. He only scored one try and it was a 50m intercept and he looked like a giraffe. He was quite a tall, lanky sort of fella. And he ran 50m. He had no idea what to do. We had to tell him to put the ball down pretty much. How did his death shape you and your life? Yeah, obviously it was a shock at the time when it happened. It's just made me realise that tomorrow's not a given. And I suppose it's a cliche because everyone says it, but you've got to live every day. You've got to not be scared to do things and say things because you might not ever get a chance to say them again. It's made me a lot closer with my parents. Not that we were ever separate, but it's definitely brought me closer, especially with my dad. We do a lot of stuff now. He watches every single cricket game, every single rugby game. If I'm going to watch, say, Clutha v West Taieri at Outram, he always comes too. He's always got advice for me, what he wants me to write in the paper or wants me to write on Facebook. So he's really immersed in my reporting side of it, because I suppose he just wants to be involved, which is cool. If Rowan was here, what do you imagine he'd be doing? Well I'd have forced him into playing rugby for Owaka. I'm sure we'd have played together. It's actually quite sad, because one of my best mates, Lyndon McNab, he lost his brother, Baden, as well. We reckon that we would both be playing and our brothers would be playing as well. There's actually a trophy at the Owaka club, the Rowan Parker-Baden McNab Memorial Trophy, which is given to the player's player at the end of each year. That's pretty cool that we can remember them like that. I don't know what Rowan wanted to do. Before he died, literally the week before he died, he was named head boy at Catlins Area School. He was into diving and all that sort of stuff, but it's hard to figure out what would have happened. But I'm sure I would have bullied him into playing rugby for the Swamp Hens.
Otago Daily Times
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
AI being used in plan submission process
Artificial intelligence is being used in the Central Otago District Council's long-term plan submission process — but machines are not taking over, the mayor says. The council's long-term plan received more than 1050 submissions — a record — and Mayor Tamah Alley was celebrating the high numbers. Ms Alley said the high level of engagement during the month-long consultation was "incredibly positive", particularly after a slow uptake. "People have obviously had a hurry-up in the last couple of days since our council meeting." Council staff still were entering the last of the hard copies that had come in and a final tally was expected next week. She called the consultation the council's "most successful ever" in terms of numbers, helped by the work of staff and elected members. "We've put in a lot of effort to engage the voice of youth, and also young families, and we've seen an increased turnout from these demographics, which is heartening," she said. "We need younger people to be involved and interested in what is happening with their council." One of the public Q&A sessions held by the council took place at Dunstan High School, and 285 of the submissions received were from young people. However, overall attendance at the 10 community sessions held across the district was "not high", making her question the ongoing relevance of "town hall" style meetings, Ms Alley said. "I think these numbers indicate the way people receive information and want to engage with council is changing," she said. "There appears to be a larger preference for people to view the information in their own time, in their own home online or in hard copy, and then respond." She congratulated communities that organised themselves to have a say, acknowledging Poolburn residents who came together to brainstorm and submit on things that mattered most to them. In a unique move, council staff are using artificial intelligence alongside people power to find common themes and clarify priorities and feedback from individual wards and demographics. The mayor sought to allay any ratepayer concerns on this process. "Rest assured, your elected members have been busy over the past few weeks reading all the submissions as they come in, so the AI process is to supplement and not replace this part." Among topics consulted on were volumetric water charges, the future of Alexandra's outdoor pool, a new community hub for the Manuherekia, a possible "Supercars" event in Cromwell and increasing council debt. Hearings will start on May 15, with deliberations on May 20. The plan will be adopted by the end of June.
