We have had to endure so many cancellations and to mix the metaphors of William Shakespeare, our events have been 'untimely ripped' from us. Not so, Celebration. While Covid and its restrictions have seen many of our joyful or exciting events fly into the ether, we aimed to retain as much of the spirit and enthusiasm the close of the year brings as we could. Celebration is a time to acknowledge all that is good about being a part of a school whose founders ensured we were the first state secondary school for girls in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also a time to farewell our Year 13s and celebrate with them as they prepare to take their next steps into their brilliant futures. So, we did it Covid-stye. We were able to socially distance, split the school up and maintain the guidelines from within our bubble and still sing. We had some extraordinary performances over the two-day double-up. We enjoyed, for the first time, our Arabic and Farsi speaking students perform songs in their own language. We saw the rich rewards of the Creatives in Schools project as our senior music students entertained us with striking and original compositions. Our favourites like Wairua Puhou, the Choir, the Jazz Band, and Teine Mai le Moana exemplified the spirit of excellence and resilience over this tough time with fabulous performances. The show never stopped for these incredible performers. Hours and hours of work went into them and it was so good for our entire school to hear them even if we couldn't be at Knox Church this year. And our speakers provided us with poignant readings on the theme of "This is Who We Are." Ms Mackay and Ms Dick came up with some beautiful words and a highlight was Miss Mackay's reading she wrote for her mother, Ms Miller. It was a theme that signaled that we are an ever-evolving, progressive, diverse, and welcoming community that embraces difference while still maintaining all the traditional elements of excellence OGHS is known for. And finally, how could we have a Celebration without the legendary Year 13 Medley! Once again, our leavers created an entertaining, sometimes hilarious, sometimes extremely moving medley that embraced the theme with verve. Thank you to our student instrumentalists who supported every rehearsal and to Mr Shields for his fabulous song choices and Matua Mac, Dr Martin, and Mr Hererra for your consummate musicianship. Thank you to Mr Hererra and Mr Hurtado Stuart for filming our Celebration so that families can enjoy it. You will find the two performances on the School-Wide Google Classroom. We look forward to seeing you back in Knox Church in November 2022.