I write this with an icy blast heading our way. Holidays are on the horizon and we have several groups travelling this April.

Our hockey squads are heading to the Wairarapa and Auckland for pre-season tournaments and the netball squad to the Sunshine Coast for a pre-season tournament.

We said “au revoir” to the French touring group at the weekend and the Classics touring group head off to Greece and Italy this week. A small group flies to Chile for the annual exchange with St Margaret’s Chile. Our young women are so fortunate to be able to have these experiences with your constant support of them. They return with eyes opened to rich histories and new cultures.

On the campus this week we have our inaugural “Tent City” experience on Thursday evening with a line up of stimulating and challenging speakers to increase understanding and awareness of the challenges facing young women around the world who experience hardship and uncertainty daily in their lives. It is heartening to see over 100 girls from Years 7 to 13 signing up for this. Their fundraising proceeds will go to our charity EGG – Educating Girls Globally – founded and hosted by SMC.

The Year 10 girls face a challenging day on Thursday as part of the Rite Journey experience. The actual programme is top secret at this stage and I’m sure your daughters will fill you in after the day’s events. David and I are joining one of the Year 10 groups and also facing the weather to camp with the girls on Thursday night!

St Margaret’s is committed to offering a holistic experience through our extracurricular offerings. These are never tied to assessment or selection and nor are they ever in any way to be seen as compulsory for we are very aware of the cost and the commitment and that it is not possible for some families to offer this to their daughters.

Thank you all for your support of your daughters through a busy term of settling in to new routines and of juggling extracurricular sports and arts activities. It was heartening to see so many of you attending the parent/ teacher interviews and bringing your daughters with you.

Enjoy some down time as a family over the April break.

Arohanui,

Gillian