The beautiful weather of the last few weeks has been a real boon and has lifted the spirits of us all here at school as we reach the end of another extremely busy year. 

While we were unfortunately the subject of a couple of negative news stories this year the reality has been that we have enjoyed another year full of achievements, innovations and personal and collective growth. We will be celebrating many of these achievements at our end of year Prizegiving next Tuesday. This year Prizegiving will be held at the Edgar Centre on Portsmouth Drive. Further details are included in this newsletter.

Year 10 students are returning today from their outdoor education camps. This is a challenging experience for many of our girls but the rewards from participation are immense. Once again I need to remind everyone that these opportunities would not be possible without the willingness of staff to commit to taking on the responsibility of running these camps. Each camp involves countless hours of preparation and carry enormous responsibility for the staff involved, in particular the leader of each camp. My thanks go to every staff member who has sacrificed time with their own families to accompany these trips.

Year 9 students are completing their project based learning projects today. An interesting array of projects have emerged as students have worked in groups to solve some of Dunedin’s ‘problems’. Projects have ranged from tackling the issue of excess alcohol consumption by university students to providing entertainment for residents of local aged care homes.

Last night we held our final Board of Trustees meeting for the year. I am very grateful to the board for their continued support for the school throughout the year and in particular for their commitment to ensuring the best possible educational opportunities for the students of this school.

We will be farewelling a number of staff next week. Miss Babbage, Mrs Shand, Mrs Boel, Miss Bates, Mrs Crawford, Miss Johnston, Miss Erguy and Mrs Northey will all be finishing up their current roles at the end of this year. We wish all of these people well for the next stage of their lives and thank them for their contribution to the school.

The thoughts of our school community currently lie with the communities of Kavanagh College and East Otago High School who have each experienced very recent tragedies.

As this is the final newsletter for the year I would like to wish you all a restful and joyful festive season and summer break. I look forward to seeing many of you at Prizegiving next week and am excited at the prospect of what lies ahead in 2018. Thank you for your ongoing support of your daughters and of the school.