Kōrero

Ko te piko o te mahuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau

The way in which the young sapling is nurtured determines how the tree will grow

Last Friday we commemorated the life of one of our Old Girls, Patsy McKenzie, alongside her family at St Mary’s Church. In this memorial, Patsy’s family shared some beautiful stories about their mother, and her passion for Craighead, which she attended from age 4 – 18, was obvious. As a Patron of the Craighead Old Girls, Patsy worked with archivist David Batchelor to write Greengages: The Story of Craighead School 1911 - 2011 which outlines the history of Craighead. The links between Patsy and Craighead went further than just attending the school, with her daughters attending Craighead and her daughter-in-law, Mrs Jude McKenzie, who taught here for many years. We were honoured to be asked by Patsy’s family to have our choir to sing at her memorial. Ably supported by Ms Emma Hall and Mrs Julie McLean, who helped prepare the girls and Mr Martin Kane who accompanied them on the organ, the choir performed a lovely rendition of the School song, Brother Sister.

This week has also been a week of significant Special Character events, starting on Tuesday with our annual Shrove Tuesday pancake race on the Dining Room lawn. This is always a favourite with the students and our Kaiārahi, Ms Kate Morgan, Mr Dylan Gibbs, Ms Ella Shaw and Ms Sasha Smillie did a wonderful job of organising and running this. The following day was Ash Wednesday which was marked with a wonderful Service delivered by the Archdeacon of South Canterbury, Venerable Ben Randall with help from our Sacristan, Georgia Coles, and Deputy Sacristan, Sophie Kane. One of the main Special Character events in our school calendar, Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, and the six weeks leading to Easter. Ven. Ben spoke to us about Ash Wednesday being a day to consider our direction and commitments, and that from time to time it is important to consider the way we are living and what we have welcomed into our lives. Over the period of Lent we encourage our students to take time to reflect and regenerate as they get busier at school and in life.

Valentines Day was also celebrated this week with face painting, photos and a cupcake/cookie sale on the Dining Room lawn. Organised by our Head and Deputy Head Girls, and the Year 13 Business class, the cupcakes and cookies sold out within minutes! Valentines Day wouldn’t be Valentines Day without flowers and chocolates and it was delightful to see the bouquets arriving in the School Office and the Boarding House.

Our Year 9 parents were welcomed to our annual Meet the Year 9 Teacher Evening, which was hosted on Tuesday night by Mrs Julie McLean (Year 9 Dean) and her team of Year 9 Whānau teachers. Also present were a number of HODs and teachers from all Learning Areas who later met with parents to talk through expectations and programmes of learning. At Craighead we put a lot of emphasis on building relationships with our parents as we know that by working in a partnership with families, students will flourish. If you do have any questions about your daughter’s progress or achievement then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

A big thank you also to Mrs Sarah Pierce (Chair of Craighead Connect) who also spoke at the Year 9 evening. Craighead Connect is our parent body which supports the school in a variety of ways, including actively supporting our main events such as Open Day and Inauguration Day, the School Ball, Year 11 Semi-Formal and the Leaver’s Ball as well as contributing towards play equipment for our Junior students. Alongside these calendar events Craighead Connect also runs a number of other activities to bring people together including the Grandparents afternoon tea, which we are looking to reinstate this year, and the introduction of a coffee cart and sausage sizzle at the Cross Country. I encourage you to consider getting involved in Craighead Connect and heading along to one of their meetings, the more people involved in this group the more our students, your daughters, will benefit.

We have a number of students who have had exciting developments happen for them this week as well. Firstly, our Junior House leaders were announced at our Assembly and their Leaders Badges were presented to them. The Kaiārahi of our four Manaaki were thrilled to announce the following students as their Junior Leaders: Te Raki - Sophie Stuart and Harriet Harley; Te Rawhiti - Eva Reid and Annalise Evans; Te Tonga - Kaitlyn Saywell and Neve Bowen, and Te Uru - Neve Gordon and Ruby Mahuika. Congratulations girls! Year 11 students Ruby Jackson, Neve Gaffaney and Natalie Holland are headlining with their band Remedy at the Retro Rock concert being held at the South Canterbury Museum tomorrow, they will deliver a lively set at 7pm and would love to have some Craighead support! In Sports news, Meriarna Rasmussen was selected for the 2024 Te Waipounamu Māori Netball U13 Netball Team; we are looking forward to watching your progress and achievements in this team, Meriarna. We were delighted to find out this week that three of our 2023 Year 13s received NZQA Subject Scholarships last year. Congratulations to Sara Loxton who gained Scholarship in Digital Technology, Sophie Hogg in Drama and Molly Fitzgerald in Visual Arts: Painting. This is a superb achievement and we are all very proud of your efforts and success.

This week ended with our annual Swimming Sports Day – we were absolutely blessed with the weather and an extremely well run event. Thank you to our Sports Director Mr Jacob Mulholland and Sports Co-Ordinator Mrs Di Surridge for a superbly organised event; thank you also to our Sports Captains - Renette van Heerden and Lydia Giles, your positivity and obvious enjoyment was infectious. Of particular note, as it is each year, was the Year 13 led ‘water dance’. Every year the choreography for this gets better and the laughter and enjoyment this particular event creates is wonderful to see. New to the programme this year was the introduction of ‘The Manu’, which has been described as the classic Kiwi dive bomb resulting in a huge splash. Judged by DP Ms Sonya Hull this attracted a lot of interest and led to a lot of laughter. We will have a full wrap up on the Swimming Sports for you in next week’s newsletter – along with the winner of The Manu.

Ngā mihi

Ms Lara Hearn-Rollo

Principal