Maybe it’s the small rural school environment or maybe there’s something in the water, but whatever the reason, 13 former Appleby School students are now head students at different colleges across the region.
Every year, they return to their roots for their primary school’s annual fair.
Appleby School’s Country Fair takes place this Saturday and it’s a community event for the students who left the school as Year 6 students when the school roll was just 90.
Organising a photo of 13 students from four different schools was a breeze because the seasoned leaders organised it themselves at their old school, dressed in their various uniforms on a day off school due to the teachers’ strike last week.
Waimea College has six former Appleby students as head students this year including Tabitha Kidd, Yannick Smit, Xanthe Southward, Eise Tijsen, Kate Craig and Kahu Roebuck-Danks.
Garin College has Sophia Jack and Sophie Pahl in its head student lineup.
At Nelson College for Girls, Grace Barrow-Dean, Fern Backhouse-Smith and Mia Cliffe are all head students, while Fynn Roberts and James Matthews hold head student roles at Nelson College.
Appleby School principal Justin Neal confesses he can’t take any credit for their success because he wasn’t at the school when the 13 were Appleby students, but he has a few ideas about why the school punches above its weight in the leadership roles.
“I think it’s a combination of things. Probably it reflects the community. It’s probably also a reflection of the team that were here at the time in terms of leadership.
“It’s the whanau and it’s the embodiment of the school and their current secondary school. Little schools like this are special little places because you remain unique in them and get opportunities to lead and you aren’t a number. Or it could be just genetics! And sometimes the stars align.
“The other cool thing is that they have gone to different schools and retained that leadership.”
All the students have other leadership roles at their schools beside being head students and Eise Tijsen attributes it to their early days at a small primary school.
“Being such a small school made it easy to get support and be noticed as well. We got encouraged to do a lot.”
Come Saturday, they will be at the fair which this year sees the return of baby animals for kids to meet as well as the chocolate wheel and candy floss.
Friends of Appleby School run the annual fair and its treasurer Claire Gawn says the fair will also be hosting a performance by Te Pītau Whakarei (Nelson Intermediate’s kapa haka group) who are heading to Te Mana Kuratahi 2025 for the national primary school kapa haka competition in November.
Perennial favourites return including the cake stall which she says will be full of delicious baking, while gorgeous bunches of spring flowers will be for sale. She says the plant and farmers market stalls are always popular due to the support of local growers who fill them each year.
They are some of the 100-plus, mostly local, businesses that help run the fair in the form of sponsorship, donations and items.
