delivered Wednesday 2 December 2009, Christchurch Town Hall

There is often talk about the length of a prize giving and indeed sometimes wagers are made, and schools are compared – we are, I know, shorter than some and longer than some. Which makes us a bit like the three bears – just right. Just right to celebrate achievement, excellence, effort, commitment, passion, the Rangi values. Just right to acknowledge the part played by everyone in the school community. Just right to reflect on a year passed and look to a year ahead.
Prize giving is certainly a chance to honour the very high achievers, to say farewell to those leaving, to enjoy some of the best of our talent. And it is something we do together. Not everyone will come up on the stage tonight.

But everyone can celebrate achievement, whether it is theirs or someone else’s. It’s a chance to is celebrate with friends and family and community and a chance for us all to play our role, whatever it is, in this community.

Prize giving is the grande finale of a year, the final triumphant bars of a symphony in four movements of which this term is the last. It’s been a speedy symphony, with all four movements in allegro and very little andante. But the thing about a symphony is that it is a beautiful and special thing and it requires an orchestra of very great diversity and passion to create the music. Every instrument has its chance to shine and at other times is part of a whole, working together to produce something that is unique and special.

That is a wonderful metaphor for the school. Because, despite generalisations about the school we are a community of greatly differing abilities and talents. That is one of our great strengths. Whether I am interviewing potential students or staff, I am looking for a rich diversity of interests, backgrounds, talents and needs. And it is vital that every girl knows that her part is important, no matter how small, whether or not she walks across the stage tonight. At different times of the year different people, different groups lead the melody, but all along there is part for everyone.

People often ask me – what is it that makes Rangi special, why do we do so well at so many things. What is the essence? What gives Rangi its spirit ? What makes one piece of music soar and enter your very being?
There’s no simple answer and it’s not about fancy strategies or flash new approaches. We have a long history, we have built up a culture of excelling, supporting and celebrating , of valuing the individual and community, and of recognising that an education that addresses only the intellectual and physical aspects of a person is a hollow thing indeed. But we never rest on our laurels.
A school’s culture is not something that just happens. It is does take time – and as we enter our 121st year we’ve certainly had that, and it is most importantly, something that girls, and indeed families, hand down to each other , from year group to year group.
One of the reasons our symphony is such a good one is because we have fantastic students and I would like to thank you all tonight – for the hard work, for stepping up, for the service, for getting on with what you have had to do, for supporting one another and the staff, for your suggestions, your sense of fair play, your sense of humour and your willingness to be a positive part of our community.

Yes, sometimes there are mistakes. There are some discordant notes in this symphony. People are not always in tune with each other. There are times when some of you wonder if you’re even playing the same piece as everyone else. Occasionally some of you just don’t like the music. But a community where those things don’t happen is not a growing community. We all have to keep learning, keep listening, keep practicing and considering not just the orchestra as a whole but the individuals within it and that can be difficult. Seldom is there perfection.

There have been some wonderful and vastly different moments of student virtuosity this year. Some of these were on the screens before the prize giving. Many happened in the classroom, we hope some happened in the recent exams. Throughout the year we have celebrated some fantastic academic achievement, but alongside those there have been quieter achievements, of personal goals met, a merit where an achieved was expected, an assignment well completed, a new skill learnt, a moment of wonderment and awe, a connection made, a sense of personal achievement.

The athletic and swimming sports continue in a fine tradition to produce championship performances and at the same time to be completely inclusive, with something for everyone, from hurdles to gumboot throwing. The fashion parades certainly bring out a different kind of talent and competiveness. There have been some tense sports games at local and regional competitions, high points for serious players, but within the social teams there were also some great games, good fun and some personal surprises.
It has been a year of extraordinary generosity from the girls; generosity of time, of spirit and of money. You have raised $33,275.88 for the various causes this year.

There have also been times that added a new and rich dimension to our music. The Kapahaka trip to the Auckland Polyfest was for some defining , as they saw themselves in a very different New Zealand context. They were in a minority and they saw another side to what it is to be a New Zealander. I hope this is just the beginning as we explore not just our own essence and diversity, but that of our country.

Our over 300 budding performing artists had their moments in the sun, the moments when each contributed to the essence of the school and at the same time experienced something for themselves. Among these were thought provoking Stage Challenge and Sheilah Winn entries, and of course Nimbus – an amazing celebration of dance. Recently we have been awed by Oliver and thoroughly entertained by the Intermediate School production of Pig Tales. Weaving their way through these are the musicians, supporting the productions and having their own highlights, particularly with Rangi Classics.
Whether on stage or backstage, in the pit, or in the audience, you all played your part. You were part of the symphony.
And while I’m talking about the girls, I’d like to thank you, the families, for your support of your daughters, enabling them to take advantage of the opportunities, however many miles, time and dollars that has meant. Recessions can be seen as character building I suppose, and we know this been a difficult year for many. In the midst of this there has been an overwhelming generosity within our community.

The Rangi staff too are an integral part in this symphony of success. By staff I mean all staff. We are blessed with the people we have at Rangi Ruru. Enthusiastic , highly skilled teachers who care and who are willing to go the extra mile and a fabulous band of support staff – Technical, office, grounds and maintenance, boarding and kitchen staff, without whom everything would grind to a halt. Whatever their role, they work together with a shared vision, a commitment to the school, the girls and our community.
At this point I would like to acknowledge the Board of Governors, a group of people who voluntarily give up a huge amount to time and who are all passionately committed to the school.

But what makes our symphony different to others, because there are other good schools.

This year the school celebrated 120 years. Over that time it has changed greatly and there were times when I don’t think it served its students as well as it could. But it has withstood the test of time and it has continued to grow and strengthen, to build on what is good, to develop a spirit that is quintessentially Rangi Ruru. It is a combination of the people, the traditions, the things we believe in and one of the central threads over all those years has been the values and the school’s church connections.

As any Gibson girl will tell you, the school has not always been Presbyterian. It began its days strongly Anglican and the girls attended St Mary’s at Merivale. The Gibsons, aging, offered the school for sale in 1946. The Presbyterian Church saw an opportunity to buy a sister school for St Andrew’s and so, for the sum of 9,750 pounds, much less than that offered by a developer, the school was sold.

We switched allegiances – not only from St Mary’s but also from Christ’s College and that was probably felt more keenly by the girls, who were encouraged to ‘look to St Andrew’s’!!! Knox Church in Bealey Avenue was the School’s church until 1986 and the move of St Andrew’s Church to the school site.

Our church associations have been rich and indeed diverse, and today we have among us girls from a wide range of beliefs and that is something we all value. But is our Presbyterianism important? I suspect for many of you it is not. All of you want the very best for your daughters and choose Rangi because you know it’s a good school. For some the range of opportunities are attractive. Some have family connections, some want a specific course or subject. Many of you like the values, but few actually come because we are a Presbyterian school.
And yet it underpins so much of what and who we are, so much of what is special. It is about more than the clans and a piper on Founders’ Day. The Presbyterians, in true Scottish tradition, place great emphasis on education, equality and community. Presbyterianism is in itself remarkably diverse and I think it is one of the great strengths of our school that diversity of belief is welcomed and that girls are encourage to question, to explore faith and to understand the beliefs that have helped shape Western civilization, have shaped our humanity.
Rangi girls are given a firm foundation, a rock on which to build their lives and a sense of something beyond the now and the me.

The Church schools – and we belong to the group of 15 Presbyterian schools in New Zealand, might seem to some to be anachronistic. A school has to offer something beyond knowledge and skills. It must also develop our being for the better. Our soul, our spirit, call it what you will, needs nurturing as much as our mind and our body. Our inner and outer lives should not be separated, compartmentalised.

Life isn’t a spiritual vacuum. Life needs meaning, it needs hope. We need to explore who we are, our place in the world, our humanity. We need to acknowledge and explore our own spirituality, this part of the essence of who we are – as individuals and as a school.

Whether or not girls choose to go to church outside of school I believe their lives are richer and better for having been to a school that has a Christian focus, whether that was ever your and their intention.
It is through our Presbyterian connections that we, along with some of our fellow schools, have established a link with Onesua College in Vanuatu. This year we were pleased to host Kathrina Tarip, the wife of the principal and the schools librarian, who came to Christchurch for professional development. The service that our girls do in Vanuatu continues to be, for them, an experience that helps shape them and their view of their world, as it was for me this year.

So – what is it that makes the school special? Howard Gardener’s Three E’s come to mind – excellence, engagement and ethics. Against the background of traditions, Christian values, a commitment to the individual, of service to others, against a background of setting the bar high and believing in everyone’s potential and the role that everyone plays, in the end it is he Tangata, he tangata, he Tangata: the people, the people , the people in glorious diversity creating together something that soars. The poet Shelley said “Are we not formed, as notes of music are, for one another, though dissimilar.”

And so this symphony in four movements reaches its last chords and already we are looking to next year. To our leavers – take with you your friendships, your values, your sense of self and of community. You move out into a world of competing choices and voices, demands and possibilities, to use the words of Dr Micheal Grimshaw. Hold fast to a sense of where you have come from and the hope that you have for your future. You are about to become part of another orchestra, a different symphony. Be strong in yourself and the music you play.

He manu i roto i te Ao e rereana e kitea, he tangata ki uta i te huarahi totika. E ai ki to karanga o Rangi Ruru ‘Whaia to te Rangi’ – as a bird seeks its opportunity from the air, so too does a person their destiny – we at Rangi Ruru would say ‘Seek after the heavenly things.’
Julie Moor
Principal