The year 13s started out their last year at Timaru Girls High school at Claremont Castle for a leadership day.

We were welcomed with Mrs MacLeods husband playing the bagpipes which created a great atmosphere for the rest of the day.

The leadership day was an opportunity for all of the year 13s to get inspired and prepared for the year regardless of having a title or not. This is exactly what we got especially from our two guest speakers Aroha Andrew and Anae Lissington.

Aroha spoke to us first about her remarkable recovery after the unfortunate house fire she was caught in where she was left with 65% of her body exposed to burns. It was a truly inspiring talk that I am sure left everybody in the room impressed by the utmost resilience in her journey to where she is today.

We had a quick intermission with some games and food before Mr Lines reintroduced to us the new Big sister program TGHS will be providing to year 9 students. This Buddy system will commence on the 14th of February where year 9s that opt into the program will get a big buddy where they will receive one on one time to help give support throughout the year.

We then heard from our second guest speaker Anae who was the Head Girl in 2021. Anae was someone many of us in the room already looked up to in year 9 so the opportunity to hear from her again and see what journey she had embarked on at uni over the past three years. One key thing Anae left us with was learning about the attributes others see within ourselves. It was an eye opening activity for many and definitely helped set the start of our year in the right direction.

Mrs Robinson and Mrs McMurry had activities organised where we explored our uniform rules and expectations, refreshing our standards for what the rest of the school will look up to us with. 

After a long day of great opportunities and inspiring words each year 13 were given a card to address to themselves to open back up at the end of our journey at TGHS. We got to set goals to aspire to and take the time to think about how to make the best out of our last year at high school.
On behalf of all of the year 13s we owe a big thank you to both of our speakers Aroha and Anae, Mr Macleod for our surprise performance as well as the staff that made room in their busy schedules to make this happen for us.

The biggest thank you of all though to our wonderful Dean Mrs Macleod because without the massive effort you put in for us to have the best learning experience to start our last year, we truly appreciate it!