I remember throwing a netball at a concrete wall for hours on end just trying to perfect my pass to try to be as good as Ann. If ever I nailed that bullet pass, she would praise me and it would put a huge smile on my face.
Ann was a role model and she made the girls around her better.
The benefits of Rotorua Girls’ High School’s new hostel, Te Whare Whawhao, to not only the school but the wider Bay of Plenty, are going to be huge.
Te Whare Whawhao is the brainchild of principal Sarah Davis, who comes from a background of running hostels and ironically was the former principal of Timaru Girls’ High School before moving to Rotorua.
The Rotorua girls’ hostel opened officially last week in a renovated building on beautiful grounds at Toi Ohomai’s campus for 31 girls. It will be able to take up to 55 girls at capacity. That’s nearly two classrooms of girls who are potentially like Ann who will shape girls around them in a positive way.
It’s the first time in the Bay of Plenty there will be a hostel for girls in state education. For students in the likes of Tauranga, Whakatāne and Taupō, there are no other hostel options.
Rotorua might be smaller than Tauranga and other cities further afield but local girls already punch above their weight in areas such as kapa haka, te reo, the arts, rugby, netball and basketball, with many of the stars coming from Rotorua Girls’ High School.
A talented girl in those cities, and even in country areas where there are zero opportunities, can now grow their skills in Rotorua.
Hostel kids usually come with a purpose. Their parents have spent good money - in this case $13,000 - to send their child to boarding school with an aim of bettering themselves.
They are not kids who are put somewhere else because their parents are too busy. These parents let go of their children reluctantly because they know there’s a higher end goal.
I asked one of the mums last week who was preparing to say goodbye to her daughter what she thinks her greatest challenge will be and these words summed it up: “Perhaps our greatest challenge is yet to be discovered, as we enter this new frontier with our young wāhine. The issues they will face as the future leaders of our communities will be far more complex than we dare to imagine. Therefore, our expectations of Rotorua Girls’ High School and Te Whare Whawhao could not possibly be any higher, as we entrust our most precious taonga and our future custodians into their care.”
