Ma te Kahukura ka rere te manu | Adorn the bird with feathers so that it may fly.

It’s my great privilege to welcome everyone - students, staff and whānau - and particularly those new to our whānau, to Marlborough Girls’ College for 2023.

We welcomed our new students and staff to MGC at our pōwhiri on Thursday - I hope you enjoy the images in our Bulletin this week. We were blessed with the support & guidance from our iwi - thank you to Whaea Nan Chadwick, Whaea Helen Joseph, Kereana Norton, Whaea Jacqui, Kiley Nepia, Matua John Kendal from MBC and Peter Meihana.

An important part of our pōwhiri and starting the year together is to acknowledge those who have come before us and we wish to acknowledge two students who passed away over the summer holiday break, Maggie Bown and Zoe Osgood. Our thoughts are with their family, friends and our staff who supported Maggie and Zoe here at school.

A key message for our new students and staff is worth sharing with everyone - we are all part of our MGC whānau. That means we are one big family, and together we support and challenge each other, and we will enjoy helping everyone grow to be their very best self.

We thank our senior student leaders this year - our Manutaki and Star Mentors. They will guide and support our new and younger students to fit in, find their way around, grow in confidence and take new opportunities. Tuakana teina - Whanaungatanga in action.

Our talented and hard working teaching and support staff are committed to helping everyone build strong relationships with others, develop awesome learning powers and know how to connect, lead and serve our community. Kotahitanga - working as one to achieve our goal of everyone learning to be their best self.

We are very proud of our school and our whānau. Having pride in our school means being here, attending school every day, wearing your uniform really well, and working hard to be your very best, everyday. In every whānau, things go along really well and they can sometimes go a bit pear shaped. At MGC talking - kanohi ki te kanohi, face to face - is a super power, and we use positive, respectful and problem solving talk to learn, to put things right and move forward together. These actions show Manaakitanga - building our own mana through the care and respect for others and our school.

We were very proud of our senior students' NCEA results and congratulations to all who achieved their qualification goals last year, especially as 2022 offered us a few curve balls and other challenges. A number of staff have been in at school over the last month, preparing for the start of the school year. 

A huge thank you to our Property and Finance Manager, Rosina Jones and our Grounds and Caretaking team Gary Doller, Paul Fishburn and Teresa McKinney who have worked very hard to have our school ready to go this week. We're very excited to start using our prototype Science learning space and look forward to sharing stories and images of this in action in the next few weeks.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support.

Ngā mihi nui

Mary-Jeanne Lynch
Principal | Tumuaki