Pupil champs best teachers at agri-skills

AgriKids NZ grand final winners Henry Gray (writing), Austin Watson and Tim Connelly-Whyte (feeding the lamb), of Ashburton Intermediate School, multi-task during an agri-challenge competition against three school staff. The boys won the challenge....

Austin Watson and Henry Gray complete the assembly and tension set of a shearing hand-piece, while Tim Connelly-Whyte carries on with the quiz.

The boys complete a tape gate set up mid-way through the agri-challenge.

Ashburton Intermediate School staff Hinehau Butcher, Matt Jones and Brad Raukawa (in PPE gear) see the end of the agri-challenge during a wool fadge race to the finish. Photos: Toni Williams

Competitors assemble a wheelbarrow during the school agri-challenge to showcase the skills learned during the AgriKids NZ national competition and to promote an Agriculture Pull Out Programme starting at the school next year.

Competitors try to identify items from photographs such as sheep and deer breeds, farm equipment, bags of seeds and fertiliser.

AgriKids NZ Grand Final winners from Ashburton Intermediate School - the AIS Fencers - convincingly won a fun, agri-challenge mini event against some of the school's staff last week.

Austin Watson, Henry Gray and Tim Connelly-Whyte took on staff members Hinehau Butcher, Matt Jones and Brad Raukawa in a mini challenge event with 14 tasks to complete, earning up to a maximum of 350 points.

The school pupils won 325 points to 243.

Parent organiser Amanda Connelly said the event showcased agriculture and some of the skills the boys had learned as participants in the national competition.

It was also a way to promote the school's new Agriculture Pull Out Programme, starting next year.

Parents of the boys were on hand to set up and judge the competitors' completed work.

Assisted by the school's AgriKids girls' team of Sara Sheppard, Isle Connelly-Whyte and Jess Taylor, competitors tackled the course in front of their school peers and colleagues.

It was compered by principal Brent Gray.

Included in the test was a mechanical module changing the front tyres of a quad bike and adjusting the tension on the chain of a two-wheeler; and an identification table, where competitors had to name different types of sheep, deer, and farm equipment from photographs

Other skills were: a safety component to put on personal protective equipment, make a sling out of a work shirt and bandage an ankle; the assembly and tension set of a shearing hand-piece; to complete a tape gate set up; assembly of a wheelbarrow; the plumbing of a water trough; identification of five different apple varieties; to make up milk, and feed a lamb.

There was also a 17-question quiz to be completed during the event, which took around 30 minutes.

The two lambs brought in for the event, Twitch and Dot, were a big hit with the school pupils.

The AgriKids NZ grand final competition was held alongside the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final last month in Invercargill.

The AIS Fencers beat 20 other teams for the title.

Teams did similar challenges to test their practical and theoretical skills.

The AIS Fencers picked up the overall win, and awards for their practical skills and for the best costumes in the grand parade.

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