Garth Sim Centurion Scholarship

A Message From Grant & Viv Robertson

Making your own luck, by Grant Robertson

There is no doubt that you make your own luck in this world but some lucky opportunities you took, you don’t recognise until a lot later on in life.

My opportunity started in 1951 when my family moved to a rapidly developing Tauranga. My dad went broke in a farm machinery business as it was not until the Bay of Plenty was discovered to be trace element deficient that agriculture, and then horticulture boomed. TGA Primary was my education introduction in classes of up to 48 pupils and then on to TGA Intermediate as a foundation pupil in a brand new (unfinished) school. Here the three 3rs were drummed into us and we designed and made substantial worthwhile ‘things’ in engineering and wood work classes.

Then came the character building and challenging time at TBC and how very different it was in those days! Cadet military training (including Bren gun stripping) and rifle shooting on Nicholson Field. Stand up with respect for teachers when they entered the room. Sing hymns in assembly and devise harmless but good fun pranks and get caned if you got caught- or for no particular reason.

Money was very tight in our family and so from early teenage school days I contract mowed lawns - including Garth Sim’s, the then headmaster, painted buildings, drove tractors and picked up hay bales. I also cut my entrepreneur teeth when a wonderful teacher Gordon Stuckey decided to introduce rowing as a TBC school sport. You cannot be involved in rowing unless you are very good at bludging commercial support and raising money. Anybody remember the Friday night rowing club dances?

From school I went on to Canterbury University to do an engineering degree but after 2 years was not really enjoying the study and was very stressed at being constantly broke. I therefore decided to take a gap year to replenish my bank account and worked spraying gorse, broom and thistles in the Taupo area. A car accident then put me in TGA hospital where I met my nurse wife (and lifelong secretary) of now 54 years and was family challenged to, and won, a management cadetship with Crown Lynn Potteries. I was encouraged by CL and day released to finish a NZCE.

My business luck then started when I was appointed the young manager of a CL owned company, NZ Perlite Ltd. It was in this role that I recognised the opportunity that existed for specialised compounds and coatings in the building industry.

We took the plunge into very underfunded but exciting private enterprise in 1972 and over the next year 26 years built and then sold 4 separate companies. Three of these were bought by the same public company! Each of these enterprises were based on an increasing experimental knowledge bank of ‘bucket chemistry’ where the products manufactured were sold to our own licensed contractor networks. These specialist products and contractors were involved in decorative coatings, lightweight plaster systems, earthquake strengthening and underground coal mining in both NZ and Australia.

As part of and in support of our industry I wrote the NZ Certificate in Proprietary Plaster Cladding Systems (PPCS) and was on the board of the BCITO during the change in apprenticeships from time served to ‘unit standards’. During this time I was also involved in the establishment of the Building License Scheme.

I have been semi retired since 1997 but have been actively involved in a similar family owned business - now also sold to a public company. I am on the board of a number of small companies and have been involved in mentoring start up businesses through the Business in the Community scheme.

We have recently chosen to share some of our business and life success with the next generations in the schools that undoubtedly helped form our character and kindle our ambitions. At TBC we are forward funding the Garth Sim Centurion Award with an invested donation.

Luck happens when you recognise opportunity, work hard and take calculated risks!

- Grant & Viv Robertson, 6th September 2022

Waka Ama World Championships

By Mitch Zandstra

Mitchell Zandstra is a TBC Old Boy and current teaching staff member at Tauranga Boys’ College. He teaches Social Studies and PE/Health and is currently in his 7th year teaching at the school. He is involved in numerous co-curricular activities including rugby, waka ama and golf. He also supports the growing numbers of Pasifika students at lunchtimes and before school.

In 2022 Mitch was selected to represent New Zealand at the Waka Ama World Championships in London. This had been a long term goal of his and something he had been training very hard for. He applied for support from the Old Boys’ Association as NZ Sport does not fund it, thus the team had to fund its own way over. 

The Old Boys’ Association donated funds to assist Mitch to attend the Championships and in August we received this note from Mitch:

Maths BBQ Class

By Charles Williams

Last year I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and teach a Maths class about financial literacy, business, banking and cooking skills. We used BBQ as a tool to engage the students.

This class is a “lower” banded Year 11 class has a very large range of student abilities.

Some of these young men would never dream of investing, saving money, or even budgeting for a week. I am very proud that by the end of last year over half the class left with at least numeracy. This was mainly due to using BBQ as a way to understand numeracy problems and questions.

A huge thank you must go to the Old Boys’ Association for the donation at the start of the year. We were able to purchase the goods we needed each week without the fear of running low on funds, plus purchase much needed calculators. Thank you.

I am running this class again in 2022 and have some great ideas I want to try. Hopefully we will add BBQ pies to our menu but branching out from there I want to look at restoring furniture if we can find a space that will have us.

Maths is not a strength of mine and I have found both the students and I learning on this journey. With the students I have in this class there are major issues with attendance, behaviour and attitude. However, I have found that with the BBQ and the different way we teach maths that we are making a real difference. I wouldn’t continue doing it if we weren’t.

So once again thank you for your support and hopefully this year we can get you all down for some BBQ meat and student hospitality.