The Otago Museum recently joined with local artist Bruce Mahalski to support him in painting many of the items in the museum’s Animal Attic. One of them was our beloved Chambered Nautilus. The Nautilus shell has become a very significant symbol for our school over the years and who can go past the soaring sound of the school in good voice as they sing The Chambered Nautilus.

The Chambered Nautilus wasn't always our school song. Before the 1930s, we only had a school hymn "Oh, God our help in ages past." Later "March on My Soul" became the school hymn. The amazing Mary King, a progressive woman who was the Principal in the years between the two world wars, asked her music teacher, Mr. Roy Spackman, to set the poem to music. The words were written by poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes. In a nautilus shell, nature provides a container for growth, a protective shell where vulnerability might be present. Like the cephalopod (a sea creature that makes its home there), students grow at their own pace and in their own way. As it grows, the nautilus makes new, larger chambers of its shell in which to live, closing off the old chambers and gradually forming a spiral.What is particularly exciting is that Roy Spackman's granddaughter, Julienne James, has the original score of The Chambered Nautilus and she will be gifting it to the school in the coming weeks so watch this space. We had no idea that descendants of Mr. Spackman were so close by let alone the precious first iteration of the iconic song. We are so grateful to Julienne because it is such an integral part of our school's history and identity.