The fence line classroom - building skills, grit, and legends in Geraldine - FCANZ

From classroom to fence line, Sarah Foley-Smith and the Primary Industry Academy are rewriting the rules on education, hard work, and what it means to build something that lasts.

Sarah Foley-Smith (AKA Team Leader), winner of the FCANZ 2024 Industry Contribution Award, runs the Primary Industry Academy at Geraldine High School, where she’s been for the last 13 years. Sarah shares with WIRED the joys of working with teenagers and fencing royalty.

I have the best job in the world! Every day is different, mostly spent outside and with awesome teenagers. There’s nothing quite like a gorgeous Geraldine day, having a mean yarn at the fence line while the rest of the school sits at their desks.

So what’s our class goal? To set the world on fire. And my goal? To make a difference. If Geraldine can’t do it, then it can’t be done.

What do we do?

We run a hands-on practical NCEA course at Geraldine High School as a normal timetabled class. Over the last 13 years we have worked hard to build our programme and are lucky to be a Primary ITO Trade Academy School – the extra funding we receive has enabled us to be very well resourced. This is topped up via fundraising. I reckon we have raised around $250K over this time, which sounds like a lot of hard work, but we have been very lucky to be part of an amazing community. Around 10% has been sponsorship, with the students raising the rest via apple picking, tree planting,firewood, selling potatoes, quiz nights etc. Nothing in this world is free, and if you want the treats then do the Mahi!

The treats

Oh, and the treats are pretty cool. We are dressed top-to-toe in Stoney Creek, hop away each year up to Mystery Creek, have an annual class tour of a region and stay away, plus heaps of other trips and a sizeable contribution to Team Leader’s shoe budget!

Fencing is our thing

Fencing has become our ‘thing’. My Level 2 students are all out on the farm, and back in the day, on quizzing our farmer trainers, the skill they thought was missing from the workforce was fencing. So we thought, “Sweet, let’s fence up a storm.”

We popped a set of 15 lines of posts in at school, 3 posts deep, 2 students per set sharing the middle post. Each student has their post for the year. Our fundraising dollars have largely been spent in this area, and we have been fortunate to bat our eyelashes and make some posh friends in the form of Struan Moore from Strainrite, and Andy at Point Lumber, who have provided some sharp deals.

Every student has their own fencing bucket containing ‘the works’: hammer, cutters, pliers, tensioner handle, tool belt, Ezepulls, tape measures etc. This is the sum total of my classroom management! No students waiting to borrow gear, getting bored, and running amok. Although I have worked long and hard to instil a respectable amount of fear in the teens, and it is widely known that when Sarah GOES OFF – stand back!

We got the fencing basics sorted via a mix of local contractors – thank you Dan Douglass, Toby How and Eli Palmer, ex-students Quinn Foley-Smith and Aidan Christie – the latter two both miss us so much they drop in regularly to help out.

We pretty much hang out at the fenceline having a yarn, solving the world’s problems (teenager style), popping up a few sneaky wee fences along the way. But wait, there’s more.

The light-bulb moment

Practically minded teenagers are super awesome, but rarely make the stage at school assemblies. Team Leader thought, “We’ll fix this,” and set about entering fencing competitions. Our first gigs were in the adult Young Farmer Fencing competition, where we met all the fabulous people to help climb the ladder. It’s always who you know. We discovered FCANZ, and this was the light bulb moment for us, and everything snowballed. Apparently, teenagers with the right attitude and work ethic are a novelty, and we were more than happy to provide the entertainment.

Team Leader likes posh friends, the more famous the better, and the fencing world literally drips with celebrities. Her students watch in awe as, on arrival at various events, she joyfully skips off to reacquaint herself with her heroes, leaving the teenagers to see hobnobbing in action… and unload the trailer.

Changing the game

In the South Island, all the fencing competitions were for contractors or under-31s (young Farmers) – nothing for schools. So we set about getting ourselves signed up to FCANZ, and wow, did the doors open. We hopped along to a few field days, resulting in an invitation to pop up to Mystery Creek and have a crack at the Silver Staples. It was certainly a baptism
of fire, but in a good way! Not disgracing ourselves with a 5th placing and following it up with 2nd and 3rd the following year.

But wait, there’s more!

Picture this: it’s Golden Pliers Finals time – the pinnacle event in the National fencing calendar. It doesn’t disappoint. Not long in and students are heard to say, “I’ve learnt more here in one hour than I have in 11 years at school.”

PIA is universally known as being very, very good at making sh!t happen, and this particular day produces a storm. “Why not run a South Island Cadet Fencing Competition?” our esteemed leader muses as we watch the Bouskill fencing royalty compete.

The answer to this question is quickly resolved; Team Leader finds another gear and spends the next two hours storming the Fieldays site forcefully making friends.

So, what did we achieve?

Not only a venue, criteria, specifications, and official go-ahead… we even got a trophy, with all the key people lined up! The inaugural NZ Fencing South Island Cadet fencing competition was launched in 2024, morphing into Secondary Schools competition in 2025. Go us. Not just pretty faces.

We are so pumped that FCANZ & NZ Fencing Competitions trusted us to get this competition off the ground and are so grateful for their support and expertise. Particularly Nick Terry, Owen Peterson, Paul Van Beers, Debbie White and Nick Leifting for all their technical expertise; Jeanette Miller, Phil Cornelius, Donna Upton and Jaime Bigwood for keeping us on track and providing fantastic support; our inspiration Tim Garrick, Craig Sinclair and Tom Rathgen who took the time to take us under their wing at various events; Noksee and Struan Moore for all your mentoring over the years; and Wiggy for
taking every chance to promote us.

The thing we love about the fencing industry is that all the posh people are so nice; nothing ever seems to be too
much trouble, no question too silly. Lastly, to students Aidan Christie & Quinn Foley-Smith – the all-time GOATs of PIA
– without your outstanding work ethic, attitude, sense of humor, plus a complete inability to decline Team Leader’s frequent requests, this whole fencing gig would never have got off the ground. Bloody well done! “We’ve got this” has become “We did this”.