Rugby-mad students win $10k for school

Te Mata School principal Mike Bain is delighted with his pupils. Photo / File

They are pretty serious about their rugby at Te Mata School in Havelock North - four or five times a year one of the songs sung at the assembly is Come On, the Bay.

That sort of passion for rugby and the Magpies has paid off nicely for the school in the form of a $10,000 "working bee" cheque from ITM, which staged a "We Love it Here" competition across all the provincial rugby regions.

At the Magpies' matches, ITM volunteers would hand out competition stickers to youngsters - a large one to wear and a small one to take back to their school, where it would be attached to a scoreboard poster supplied by ITM.

The schools in each region that collected the most got the $10,000 nod.

"It is a huge bonus for us and an awesome opportunity to get some things done," principal Mike Bain said.

He said the pupils loved their rugby and at each Magpies home game there would be typically between 100 and 150 of them there with their families.

"So they collected plenty of stickers."

At the end of it all there were about 2500 attached to the scoreboard poster, with one youngster winning a "competition within a competition" - which Mr Bain set up - by collecting about 400 alone.

The cheque, which would be presented to school representatives at tomorrow night's Ranfurly Shield clash at McLean Park, would be used for a couple of long-term projects on the go, he said.

One was to add to the landscaping and native tree planting in the grounds to attract more native bird life, and another was beautification and upgrading work on the school office block.

Mr Bain said funding for such things was always an issue and the school usually drew on the community.

"So this a great news."