On St Patrick’s Day, 17th of March, we held our annual ‘Coin Trail’. This is a day where all of our students get together in their Atawhai Groups to raise money for Caritas and a specific country that they are working with. This year we were fundraising for Cambodia. In the preceding weeks, the girls brought in coins to their Atawhai Classes in order to win the spot of being the Atawhai with the most money raised. At lunchtime there were a great selection of stalls (including some impressive baked goods) set up for the girls to spend money at, with the profits also going to Caritas. However, the highlight of the day for many of the girls was participating in and getting to see the ‘Atawhai chalk designs’. Each Atawhai group has a square on which to create a chalk design related to our Core Mercy value this year, Aumihi – Respect. Everyone was blown away by the creativity! Our fundraising efforts have been a bit disrupted by the lockdowns; however, the staff and students still managed to rally together and make a big difference for a country in need. Final totals for the amount raised will be announced in the coming days.

Amy Usherwood and Dina Aziz, Heads of Arts and Culture