Year 8 pupils taste college life for a day

Year 8 Gladstone School pupil Ben looking bruised and bashed during the Special FX workshop run by UCOL Wairarapa beauty lecturer Riki Anderson.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

A record number of South Wairarapa Year 8 pupils have experienced their first taste of secondary school at the fourth annual Moving On Conference held at Kuranui College.

Trudy Sears, schools liaison for Wairarapa Rural Education Activities Programme (REAP), said 160 pupils from 13 South Wairarapa schools converged on the college in Greytown for a day of workshops on Monday.

She said the number of pupils was the greatest since the conference was first run in 2012 and all bar students from a single South Wairarapa school were this year able to attend.

The aim of the Moving On Conference was for the Year 8 pupils to attend workshops and listen to key speakers in a more collegial learning environment and "to open the students' eyes" to the community in which they live, and what was available academically and career-wise after their move to secondary school.

"The conference is a way of acknowledging that these Year 8 students are moving on to secondary school next year.

"The day also gives them a little social interaction. Some come from small isolated schools and this way they can make connections before starting college."

Ms Sears said popular Moving On classes that were new this year included the Special FX workshop led by UCOL Wairarapa beauty lecturer Riki Anderson that led pupils in creating "amazing special effects injuries on themselves" and learning about theatre makeup, and Taonga Takaro run by Masterton-based Maori health provider Whaiora that centred on making and playing Maori games.

Other workshops of the 10 that ran included Memory Stamps with Masterton artist Tina Rae Carter, Chef Training centred on puff pastry dishes with UCOL Wairarapa cookery tutor Kiri Macdonald and Stacey Puddy, kapa haka tutor Shari Taylor ran Eke Taumata and taught patu skills, and drama tutor Richard Brooks ran The Drama of Theatresports that introduced pupils to drama and theatresports, "allowing them to gain confidence whilst making themselves look stupidly intelligent".

New Kuranui College dance teacher Karin Melchior also took students for the workshop So You Think You Can Dance, getting the students to choreograph and perform their own dances, Ms Sears said.

Returning workshops this year included Scratch Coding, centred on programming software with Bryan Butler, Masterton fire station officer Mike Cornford and senior firefighter Richard King ran Fire & Rescue, an introduction to a career in the Fire Service, and veteran Masterton musician and music tutor Jordan Tredray ran the Make Sum Noise workshop that introduced the pupils to instruments from around the world.

The conference was initiated and organised by the South Wairarapa principals cluster, Ms Sears said, and Wairarapa REAP helped co-ordinate the event and provide administrative support alongside Kuranui College, which also presented a workshop.