We were delighted and very proud to celebrate students' successes in our Junior Kairangi awards this week.

What an outstanding group of rangatahi we have at Marlborough Girls' College in Year 9 and 10. It was fantastic to share the celebration with so many parents and whānau as well. 

The Kairangi awards recognise students effort and success in living our values and vision for learning. Over 400 awards were presented over the two days.

It is more remarkable that our students continue to focus on their learning and success in this most challenging of times. In over 30 years in education I have never experienced six months as demanding as we all have this year. 

Our staff have worked incredibly hard to manage during this term, despite coping with significant illness for themselves and their families. We have a team of relief teachers who are part of our MGC family and a huge thank you to all of them for their support and work.

Today we farewelled Mr Alistair Swan who has been teaching at Marlborough Girls' College for the last 26 years. He has been a stalwart of the Science department and supported many many students in learning Physics over the years. Alistair's calm approach and dry humour, and love and fascination of all things physics and science will be missed. We thank Alistair for his fantastic service and wish him all the very best for his retirement.

We also farewelled our wonderful Year 13 Dean, Karen Tattersall today. Karen has been with us for the last 6 years and we look forward to keeping in touch with her as she is just moving down the road to Queen Charlotte College.

As we move into the holidays I wish every one of you a relaxing, fun and restful two weeks. Keep safe, keep well and see you next term.

Ngā manaakitanga, nā Mary-Jeanne Lynch