Pupils' golden results from wool

WINNING EFFORT: Fernridge School pupil Mason Nikau, 6, with the front gate Yarn Bombing artwork he helped create that won the school first place and $300 in a Golden Shears competition last week. PHOTO/ LYNDA FERINGA

Fernridge School pupils have spun gold from wool off the back of the international shearing contest in Masterton.

Teacher aide Tammy Waitere said the school had last week captured a $300 first prize in the Golden Shears Yarn Bombing contest, during which pupils at several schools in the town "had to decorate a tree or an obvious place in your school" using wool, woollen yarn, garments or other shears-related items.

"We chose the fence near our gate and because we had swimming sports and a busy week anyway, we worked on it during our lunch breaks and used things that were easy to add to the fence - we didn't really want to be sitting there knitting or anything."

Ms Waitere said the contest entry was created over three days with 15 pupils starting the first day and about 40 finishing the prize-winning job, which uses balls of wool, old jerseys a fadge and stylised shears, silhouette sheep, and cardboard grass.

The decoration was photographed and uploaded to the Golden Shears Facebook page, Ms Waitere said, and Fernridge School was crowned winner after amassing the most likes for the image of their "yarn bombing".

Pupil Tamati Mason, 8, was from a shearing family and had also shorn a sheep at the school earlier in the week. Most of his fellow pupils had turned out to cheer him on during a morning session, at which his mother Char Mason had helped out as a rousie.

The pupils were taken to the opening day of competition at Golden Shears on Thursday, Ms Waitere said, which capped off a winning week at the Masterton school.