Students battle bitter weather in safety contest
The annual Taranaki Secondary Schools Agricultural Safety challenge was held in bitterly cold weather conditions on Friday, August 12. The Francis Douglas Memorial College farm hosted the event once again. The students coped well with the conditions although they were pleased to eat a hot lunch. Participating school numbers were down due to the poor weather.
It is the 19th year of the event and five teams competed for the ACC trophy. FDMC has won the event for the last two years but there is now a new champion school.
The final results were Inglewood (Robyn Gordon, Jack Redpath, Korey Astwood and Sam Leake) won with 273.8 points, followed by Waitara on 272 and NPGH on 268. The two FDMC teams had 256 for A and 253 for B. Once again the final quiz round saw the lead change with Inglewood overtaking Waitara and FDMC A narrowly passing FDMC B.
The event relies on several organisations to make it successful with volunteers assisting from Taratahi, ACC, Fire Service, Police, New Plymouth Injury Safe and teachers from participating schools.
Conversations with several school teachers indicated that many of their students are being offered jobs and apprenticeships before the end of year 13.