Whau Valley Pupils' Ball

Northern Advocate, 18 October 1947, Page 8

Whau Valley Pupils' Ball

The Whau Valley Primary School neld its annual children's fancy dress ball in the Whangarei Town Hall last night. The children turned out in colourful costumes that were a credit to their mothers' ingenuity. A feature of the evening was the control Mr I. N. Menzies had over the children. Before he came to the microphone pandemonium reigned, but in a moment the hall was quiet as the senior grand march took shape. There were more primer children in the junior march than there were among all the standards.

This speaks well for the future of the school.

The interest taken by parents and friends was shown by the fact that there were more people in the Town Hall last night than on any other occasion this year.

FOLK DANCING About 30 mothers of the children spent the morning arranging the tasteful floral decorations on the stage and preparing the supper. After tile grand march the children entertained with colourful folk dances. These were given by individual classes. The tiny tots were by no means overshadowed in this section. They performed naturally, having no stage consciousness whatsoever.

To a bagpipe accompaniment Margaret McKinnon and Colleen Jones gave a spirited performance of the sailor’s hornpipe.

Directed by Mr W. H. Boswell, the gymnastic class gave a display of precision tumbling. Two tiny tots on the end of the line stole the show.

The tumbling featured straight rolls, /living through loops, a form of crawling, carrying top( or bottom) weight, and pyramids. The only casualty was one of the featherweights who landed on his head, was assisted from the mat and carried on—he deserved his ovation. When the children’s items were over, the headmaster (Mr R. L. McNabb) called on the chairman of the school committee (Mr D. J. Thomson) to address the gathering.

BASIS OF SUCCESS Mr Thomson said that functions like the one held last night could only be run successfully if the work of the .teachers was backed by the wholehearted cooperation of the parents. Whau Valley was fortunate in that respect.

The teachers were to be congratulated on producing such a fine show, in spite of unavoidable interruptions. The Mayor (Mr W. Jones) said that what he had seen had been an edi*cation to him. It spoke well for the training the children had received from their teachers, and the cooperation of the parents.