VAN DER LOO Robbie

1988 – 1989    Groundsman / Acting Caretaker

1989 – 1994     Caretaker

Recently dubbed as “Jailer” by some mischievous boys on account of his large bunch of keys, Robert van der Loo’s amicable personality is far from such a stereotyped image. Robert’s association with King’s High School formally started in 1983 as a school cleaner. He was appointed as groundsman in March of this year and has been acting caretaker since July due to his father’s illness.

Robert is an Otago born and bred boy, schooling out on the sunny Taieri Plains. He is married with two children – a five year old boy and a recently arrived daughter. Robert’s forte is cycling, and this takes up most of his spare time. He has been extremely successful in competition and has been an Otago Representative. He competes in both track and road events but prefers the former. His experience in this field is further extended into a small specialised business; he makes bespoke racing cycle wheels. When not so active Robert is a model maker and enjoys building realistic scenes in which to display his painstaking efforts.

Robbie leaves Kings

Friday 7 October was Robbie van der Loo’s last day as caretaker at King’s. He has started job on The Exchange, a new local newspaper. Robbie will be selling advertising space for the newspaper, and doing some photographic journalism.

Robbie has been caretaker for 7 years (taking over from his father Pete) and was groundsman at the l before that time, so he has seen a lot of development in the school throughout the years.

Part of Robbie’s new job will be phone-calls and to see how things are going, and he will also back taking photos of interschool sports. He to incorporate some writing by students into reports, as he thinks it is important to include their views in what is written about them.