West Melton Tertiary Scholarship

The West Melton Scholarship is an annual award given to ex-pupils of West Melton School who are entering their final year of study towards a tertiary degree.  Applications are normally made at the beginning of the year with the Scholarship Awards Committee granting the award early in the first semester.

What’s behind the West Melton Scholarship and Awards Committee?In 1989, the counties of Malvern, Ellesmere and part of Paparua merged to form Selwyn District Council. The rest of Paparua was absorbed into Christchurch city. The area that became part of Christchurch included bits of Sockburn including the original Paparua Council headquarters plus Hornby which housed the Paparua Library. The Library was on-sold to the city council.Eventually the proceeds from the sale of the Paparua Library were distributed back to the districts in the old Paparua county which included West Melton. This substantial sum of money was held by Selwyn District Council pending proposals by the West Melton community on how to use it.

In 2010, a meeting of representatives of the West Melton Community Centre Committee, the Residents’ Association and the Reserve Board resolved to use all of this money (then $120,000) as a grant towards the purchase of land to extend both the Domain and the Community Centre.However at a subsequent public meeting held to ratify this decision a case was put that some of this money should be retained to support activities in the community associated with a ‘library’ such as scholarship, drama, music art etc.  As a result it was agreed that a sum of $40,000 would be considered a loan rather than a grant and the interest on this money would be available to a Scholarship and Awards Committee to administer.

The WM Scholarship and Awards Committee (WMSAC) consisting of a representative from the WM Community Centre Committee, the Residents Association, Reserve Board, West Melton School and the West Melton News and an independent convener was formed.  The WMSAC decided a tertiary scholarship to an ex-pupil of West Melton School would be the first award it would fund.