College dominates top honours
Putaruru College can give itself a pat on the back after its students topped seven out of ten subjects offered through the Trades Academy’s secondary tertiary programme .
Each year the academy’s secondary tertiary programme, run through Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, offers an opportunity for Year 12 and 13 students to begin their tertiary studies in select subjects while simultaneously also completing school without paying additional fees.
Impressively, Putaruru College had the overall top students in Healthcare [Abbey Cawood], Hair and Beauty [Gerdien de Vries], Engineering [Mart Akkersma], Construction [Isaac Murray], Automotive [Caleb Marshall], Hospitality [Daniel Armstrong] and Logistics [Kyle Hunt].
Phoenix Johnson was also awarded most improved student in Construction and Britney Fowler received a special award for leadership and group participation.
The only areas the college missed out on were in Early Childhood, Electronics, and Sport and Exercise.
Engineering student Mart Akkersma has travelled to Rotorua every Friday to take part and put his win down to ‘‘doing all my work’’.
He encouraged other students to jump at the opportunities the programme offers.
‘‘I want to get into either building or engineering so I put my name forward for this and as far as I know everyone who did got selected,’’ he said.
‘‘It was good to be able to get into because it is a lot more practical and hands on than school and you meet a lot more people.’’
‘‘We did a lot of machine work and safety was also big as well. It was good getting out of the school workshop into another workshop,’’ he said.
He said coming out as top student was an added bonus that will hopefully help him secure an apprenticeship once he finishes school.
‘‘There were 15 in my class so it was good, I was stoked,’’ he said.
Six students from Putaruru College were also recently awarded the University of Waikato School Leavers Scholarship Award Te Ara Ki Angitu- Pathway to Excellence. That includes Joseph Burgoyne-smith, Isla Mckinnon, Annah Saies, Elisabeth Stegen, Brad Wharehoka, and Therese White. Family violence It has been a busy week for family violence with 21 reports. Seven of these resulted in further police action with some ending up in court and others being referred to Youth Aid.
These incidents have been fuelled by various things including alcohol, synthetic cannabis, cannabis, and relationship issues. Fireworks We had a couple of fireworks related incidents in Tokoroa including a mailbox being blown up and a property fire which was most likely the result of fireworks.
Four or five complaints were also made in Putaruru involving children. Immature behaviour around fireworks is the reason why fireworks will likely, one day, be banned. Farm bikes It is that time of year when we see a rise in quad and farm bikes being stolen. Make sure keys are removed and don’t leave them a million miles away from your house as they are an easy target when there is no one around.