DUNSTAN NEWS
Spurred on by the idea that some schools haven’t had a chance to see any theatre in their schools in the last couple of years, we decided to take our work to them. With the generous sponsorship of the Alexandra Rotary Club, we were able to reduce the cost to our students and to provide a free performance to the schools. In lieu of a performance fee we asked that schools consider bringing an item of food for their local food bank, as a way of paying things forward.
We visited Millers Flat School, Lawrence Area School and Tokoiti School on our first day, staying at Burns Lodge in Mosgiel on the first night. On our second day we performed at Waitati, Hampden and Maheno Schools, staying in Oamaru that evening, and on our final day we visited Totara and Poolburn Schools.
It is worth noting how proud I was of this group of year 10 students. Year 10 can often be a year group that teachers tend to grit their teeth with, but these guys were an absolute credit to Dunstan High. They worked well together, played and interacted with the primary school kids beautifully and, on our arrival back at school, received messages from the schools and community reinforcing how terrific they were.
This was such a lovely trip that I’ll be seriously considering another event like this in the future. My sincere thanks to Julie Ruffell for being an awesome ‘camp mum’, and once again many thanks to the Alexandra Rotary Club who, without their support, made this event possible.