2024 is off to an amazing start at St Cuthbert’s. From sport to performing arts, music, visual art and so much more – it has been a productive and happy time.
We have some super sport achievements.
Our Premier Water Polo Team have been crowned national champions for a second year in a row! Their outstanding season concluded with a 9-5 victory over Baradene College in the finals of the NZ Secondary Schools comp. We are so proud of this amazing team!
From cheering on the sidelines to captivating audiences, it was a stunning array of song and dance at our annual Pō fiafia event where we celebrate a number of diverse cultures. We have 13 inclusive cultural groups: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Kapa Haka, Korean, Mongolian, Samoan, Sri Lankan, Thai, Tibetan, Tongan, Turkish and Vietnamese. Students can join a group to immerse themselves in a new culture or celebrate their own heritage. Pō fiafia then leads into various groups performing at Polyfest.
Our Senior Kapa Haka group, Kahukura, have achieved their best result ever at Polyfest, winning two trophies! The group placed 1st in Waiata Tira-Choral, 1st in Haka Taparahi and 3rd in Kākahu (costume). Our students placed 6th overall out of 18 schools. Kahukura gave a stunning performance at both Pō fiafia and Polyfest. Ka pai te mahi!
Polyfest success didn’t stop there. The Turkish group also had an outstanding result placing 1st in the Europe Continent Diversity Stage and a student from our Tongan group came 3rd in the Tongan speech competition.
Now to jazz things up we cross to the music department where students and staff from our Jazz programme travelled to the 46th National Youth Jazz Competition over Easter Weekend. Sixteen musicians, representing the College Stage Band and Milestones jazz combo. This is the 46th year of the competition and over 700 students from all over the country took part. After months of preparatory work our students performed brilliantly, with Stage Band receiving a Gold Award and Milestones a Silver Award.
We now sidestep from performing arts to visual arts. A big congratulations to the outstanding art department and the Year 13 (2023) students who have been selected for the Top Art exhibition for their NCEA Level 3 portfolios.
Photography – Alissa Chu
Painting & Design – Ava Tuhega
Design – Olivia Smith
Print making – Brookelyn Muir, Isla McCarthy, Valencia Santhara
In boarding the girls have had a great start to the year with plenty of activities to keep them busy.
The first weekend was the Closed Weekend, where all the boarders stayed in to participate in team building activities and the hotly contested Durham Shield. It was a fantastic way to begin the 2024 boarding journey, with lots of fun and laughter, and the chance to really bond as a group. The following week saw Ms Dickson and the boarding leaders organise a special Chinese New Year dinner. This was an amazing evening with some beautiful performances and many of the girls dressed in traditional costume. We’ve also had the Boarding Leaders dinner and a leadership workshop that was held in conjunction with Auckland Diocesan. Dorm challenges have been a highlight, and many of the girls participated in the amazing Pō fiafia evening. It has been a full and successful start to the year and it is great to see the Boarders embracing the many opportunities to get involved and their pride in being part of the boarding community.
At St Cuthbert’s Education Outside the Classroom is pivotal in the student’s learning. This is achieved through school excursions day trips, camps, our remote campus in the Bay of Plenty, and overseas trips. Over the April holiday break, 30 Year 12/13 Commerce students travelled to the West Coast of the United States on an “Empowering Women in Business” Tour. The tour aimed to expose these students to a variety of female business leaders from well-known businesses covering a variety of industries. The panels spoke about the industry they were working in as well as their career progression. There were many links to what the students have been learning in Accounting, Business Studies and Economics which helped them put their academic learning into context. An often repeated piece of advice the business leaders gave the group was the importance of networking and having mentors supporting their career growth. A key takeaway for most students is that there are more opportunities within these businesses than they initially thought and that many people change their career focus by taking advantage of key opportunities for continued growth. The group also enjoyed visiting key university campuses and sightseeing along the way.
Academic excellence has been outstanding once again with exceptional results across the board from Year 11-13 in 2023.These results would not be possible without the dedication of our wonderful teachers, who are an integral part of supporting every girl to achieve her personal best. These amazing academic results are testament to our unwavering commitment to delivering the very best all-round education for our girls.
University Entrance
2023 has seen 97% of our Year 13 students gain University Entrance, with impressive results across both the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) qualifications.
International Baccalaureate Diploma
Last year, 98% of our students gained their Diploma, with 20% of students gaining a score of 40+ out of a possible score of 45. Two students gained an exceptional score of 44/45. This places St Cuthbert’s amongst the top schools in the world for this Diploma.
The first twins ever and the only girls in 2023 to be named Premier Scholars (in the top ten academically in the country) are our own Ena and Belle Yin. They, along with three of our other incredible top NZQA Scholars, were recognised at the prestigious NZ Scholarship Top Scholar Awards Ceremony in Wellington, with awards presented by Minister of Education, the Hon Erica Stanford and the Right Hon Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Ena narrowly missed out on the Prime Minister’s Award for Academic Excellence, having the second most scholarships in the country which is an incredible achievement made all the more amazing given Ena was Year 12 in 2023. Also recognised were our extraordinarily talented 2023 Top of Subject students; Ava Tuhega (Design), Rita Peryer (Japanese) and Emily Whineray (Latin), as well as Belle Yin (Chinese) and Ena Yin (Art History and HPE). These are the only academic awards in New Zealand that every school can participate in and it is truly impressive to see St Cuthbert’s had the most students of any school represented today with five students winning a total of eight awards. Acting Principal Suzanne Winthrop and Deputy Head of Senior School, Julia Fuge, were in attendance at the ceremony with the students.
We are very proud of the remarkable achievements this past term across several different codes. We look forward to what Term 2 will bring.
