Former Te Puke High School student Holly Farquhar back as a teacher

Former Te Puke High School student Holly Farquhar is now a teaching French at the school. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

In the latest of our series of articles catching up with former Te Puke High School students, Stuart Whitaker spoke to Holly Farquhar who has been back at the school since the start of the year — this time as a teacher.

When Holly Farquhar took up her role as a French teacher at Te Puke High School at the start of the year, it was the third time she had joined the school.

Part way through her schooling, as a 17-year-old, Holly left to spend six months in France thanks to a Ministry of Education Language Immersion scholarship.

She returned to complete her schooling.

Now, after studying in Wellington, spending two years overseas, and then completing her teacher training, she is back.

"I was in the Te Puke Times when I won the scholarship to go to France," she says.

It's a measure of Holly's involvement in school life that that wasn't the only time her name has appeared in Te Puke Times — she's featured as a production cast member, helping to prepare the Memorial Hall for the school ball and as a member of various sports teams.

Holly was persuaded to apply for the scholarship by teacher Ali Rennie, who still teaches at the school. She went to France in 2011, living in a small town near Laval in northwest France.

"I found out [about her scholarship success] about a year and a bit before I went, so it was a really long time to wait.

"Then when it did come, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I just thought: 'Oh well, it's going to be an excellent experience'.

"It was quite young to be moving away, but it did me wonders."

Unsure exactly what she was going to do next, when Holly returned from France she went back to school then went to Victoria University where she graduated with a French and Linguistics BA.

"We come from quite a small isolated place — so being that young and having that knowledge of the world was really, really helpful and it meant that going off to university, I'd already done some 'finding myself'."

She was then on the move again, heading to London where she spent two years teaching as a reliever.

"You don't have to have a teaching degree over there which seemed a bit crazy when I first got there, but it was such an amazing experience, I met so many people. So many Kiwis and Aussies live there."

Student Holly pictured with Te Puke High School languages teacher Ali Rennie at the time she was awarded a Ministry of Education Language Immersion scholarship.

Back in New Zealand Holly took a graduate diploma in teaching in Auckland.

"That year I caught up with Ali again who said you need to come down here to Te Puke to do a practicum, so I came back in September last year and spent seven weeks here doing my practicum which was really awesome but also really strange to be here as a teacher."

A permanent role became available and Holly applied, was successful, and started teaching at the school at the beginning of the year.

"I was really nervous about it because it's my first career job, but they say having life experience is so valuable when you go into a job like this so I feel I've been away from the place long enough that to come back now there's no [students] here now that know me.

"And it's awesome working with old teachers but in a colleague position now — but it was really hard to get my head around it at first — especially calling them by their first names."