When Ngatea’s Julie Pirie heard about some misbehaving children at the local school, she remembered what she’d seen on Good Sorts – 14 years prior.
Janet Mackey ran a calf club after her health meant she had to give up her farm, something which inspired Pirie when she heard there were bored children in the area.
“I went back into my memory banks and went, ‘ah, I know what I can do’.”
Pirie opened up her own calf club to all the students at Ngatea Primary School, something she said was “so rewarding”.
“I learnt just as much from them as they learnt from me.
“They leave home, come and do the calves, and they can just concentrate and talk to the calves.”
She said there was not a lot of structure at the calf club.
“It’s about the kids doing things at their own pace and helping each other.
“It teaches the kids a little bit of patience.”
