School of hard knocks turns out champions

Team captain Vidar Tupou in action for the Viscount boys' team. Picture / Bradley Ambrose

An underdog Mangere school is becoming a sporting giant, with champion boys' and girls' teams winning Auckland titles.

The only competition left for the victorious Viscount Primary School teams may be bragging rights about which of the school's teams is the best - and that is a close call.

The 900-pupil school, which goes up to intermediate level, swept all before it, including much bigger schools, on the way to winning both Auckland intermediate boys' and girls' rugby titles.

The girls defended their title in style, conceding only one try all season and that was in the final against Tamaki Intermediate, which they won 21-7.

The boys were pipped at the post by one try in last year's South Auckland zone final but this year made no mistake, going all the way to the Auckland final where they whitewashed Ellerslie-Panmure 21-0. And again only one try was scored against them all season.

Now the youngsters are gunning for glory as they aim to secure both Auckland schools rugby league titles later this month.

The boys have already won the South Auckland zone champs, with the girls due to start their zone competition next week.

Boys' team captain and hooker 13-year-old Vidar Tupou talks like a seasoned professional about the team's success.

"We all put a lot of effort in all season, not just for ourselves and our families but for our school.

"I told my team mates to go hard, play fair, do the business and have fun. We did. And we'll win the rugby league too."

It's that winning attitude instilled in the youngsters by their teachers that is translating into success on and off the field.

Most students at Viscount Primary play and succeed in more than one sport. For the last five years literacy rates and reading levels at Viscount have continued to edge above the national average.

Principal Keith Gayford says his students have some major hurdles to overcome in their young lives.

Apart from 70 per cent starting school as 5-year-olds with English as their second language, most hail from the poorest families in South Auckland and live in neighbourhoods plagued by some of the worst social statistics in the Counties Manukau area

But Mr Gayford says sporting success can lead to all sorts of off-field dividends.

"We believe once these youngsters get a taste of success on the sports field they start to believe it is possible to succeed in music and arts and, in fact, in anything they turn their minds to.

"Learning how to learn is the most important lesson these youngsters will take with them throughout the rest of their lives."

The school appointed a full-time sports director five years ago, and 30 of the 35 teachers now coach one or more team sports.

Mr Gayford says his school's "inquiry" approach to learning encourages students to think for themselves and replicate successes on the sports field in the classroom.

It has seen his decile one school become recognised by the Ministry of Education as a model for others.

That has led to academics and educators from around the country and overseas beating a path to the Mangere school, including recent visits from US and UK educators keen to tap into the approach.

- THE AUCKLANDER