Jubilee time at 'Rock' College

They used to call it "Rock" College. No doubt many of the present generation of students who walk its corridors and occupy its classrooms still refer it by that title.
How Ruapehu College came to have that nickname is not recorded in any formal history of the school.
Maybe it was because the college was a hard place back then. Or perhaps it was simply a reference to the "rock" that dominates the Ohakune landscape and after which that town's secondary school was named.
But whatever name its past or present students use to describe their college, the place must hold pleasant memories for a very large number of them.
Why else would 700-plus people who played some part in developing Ruapehu College over the past half century, want to spend two days there, by choice and at their own expense, other than to relive those memories of the good times spent in and around that institution?
But perhaps it's hardly surprising that so many people, many from far-away places, are coming to Ohakune this weekend to join the celebrations for Ruapehu College's golden jubilee. After all, 25 years ago they turned out in droves when the school came of age.
So why not return to help mark its reaching maturity? Planning for the event began almost two years ago by an organising committee chaired by long-time teacher Merrilyn George.
Those attending will come from all over New Zealand as well as from as far afield as the United States and the United Kingdom. The equivalent of whole planeload of former staff and students are also coming from Australia.
Mrs George, who has been a teacher for most of the period since 1966, was on the 25th anniversary organising committee in 1980 and edited the booklet marking that occasion. She will be compiling another booklet to mark the golden jubilee.
The jubilee begins on Friday, March 4, with an open afternoon and registrations at the college. A full and busy programme for the weekend includes plenty of time for renewing old friendships as well as more formal events such as decade photographs, cutting of the jubilee cake, a thanksgiving service and barbecue.
However, the highlight will almost certainly be the jubilee dinner and ball on the Saturday night.
Mrs George, who has taught at the college for most of the period since 1966, was on the 25th anniversary organising committee in 1980 and edited the booklet marking that occasion.
She will be compiling another booklet to mark the golden jubilee.
While the celebrations this weekend will mark the school's 50th anniversary, its history, at least in terms of buildings, goes back another two years to 1953.
But even getting to the point where new buildings were erected on the Tainui St site, where Ruapehu College still stands, was a long and fraught process which began almost a decade before that.
The old Ohakune District High School had long been overcrowded. Its facilities and amenities were unsatisfactory and classes were even being held in cloakrooms and storerooms as well as off campus in local halls.
Finally, in February, 1953, the secondary department of the ODHS, comprising six classrooms, a laboratory, art room, commercial room, library, staffroom and administration room was officially opened.
However, it would take another two years before the "new" school would "translate" from being simply an adjunct to the district high school to become a "post primary school" in its own right with its own name.
At that time the roll was around 240 and Ruapehu College had a staff of 10.
Twenty-five years ago the then Mayor of Ohakune, John Gould, noted the importance of Ruapehu College and its influence on the wider Waimarino communities.
At that time Ohakune, in particular, was on the brink of major changes with the opening up of the Turoa skifield with its huge potential for tourism, the building of Winstone's pulp mill at Karioi and the development of a substantial forestry industry in the region.
"The changing character of our community has necessitated a changing role for our college and it is gratifying to see that the new challenge has been accepted," Mr Gould said. In that respect, little has changed at Ruapehu College.
Innovation and flexibility in the courses and programmes the college offers its students have, especially in recent years, become one of its major strengths.
For the most part those courses make the best use of the resources in the school's catchment area ? all those things that Mr Gould referred to 25 years ago.
Ruapehu College now operates a forestry academy in collaboration with Winstones, it has a tourism course, an outdoor education course, a "gateway" programme which opens onto opportunities for students to experience employment and which has led to several students gaining apprenticeships, all in addition to the usual range of academic and practical subjects for secondary school students.
There is also a full-on sports programme which sees several Ruapehu College teams participating, with more than just a little success, in inter-collegiate competitions.
And the school also now hosts the annual secondary schools skiing and snowboarding championships on the mountain which has become an extension of the college playground.
Like his predecessors, current principal Bruce Levick, who leads a staff of 19 providing education for 230 students, is enthusiastic about Ruapehu College and its place in the Waimarino community.
"It is one of the great successes of our rural town," he said.