Mid Winter Darkness and Light

Here are some images of last months 2012 Mid Winter Festival at Raphael House.  As you can see, the whole school is involved and the atmosphere makes for a powerful impression of light radiating in the darkest time of the year.







The Class 12 students are the flame bearers who ignite the mid-winter bonfire.






















The fire sends sparks up into a starry night sky.

Playing with fire: skill and care with fire poi spinning creates a spectacular display.

Look here to read our recent post about the lantern making tradition that is a big part of the preparation for the festival each year.

Our Obsession with Celebrities

Jim Mora of Radio New Zealand's Afternoons programme interviewed Helen Wright today on the the effect of gender stereotyping on our children.


Dr Helen Wright - head of a private girls' school in the UK, believes our celebrity obsessed culture is ruining us and that the fuss over Kim Kardashian represents "almost everything that is wrong with Western society". Her remarks have hit a global nerve.


Click the play button below to hear the interview (22 mins):

Mid Winter Lanterns

Recently the school celebrated the Mid Winter festival with a roaring bonfire and soup and stories in the classrooms.

 As part of the build up to the festival all the children in Classes 1-8 created lanterns to light their way on the night. This is a tradition dating back many years at the school, and each year the younger classes eagerly admire the older children’s lanterns, looking forward to creating them in years to come.

Class Four created 4-sided cardboard lanterns and, for the first time, cut out designs which they backed with tissue paper. They needed to use their rulers accurately to create their lantern and designs; they needed to use a craft knife skillfully to cut their designs cleanly. Cutting out tissue to fit behind the windows posed another challenge, as did constructing them once the design was complete.

The class put in several lessons practicing their skills and creating different designs before approaching the ‘real thing’. As you can see the results are beautiful. They worked with care and focus, helping one another until all lanterns were complete.

Well done Class 4 and all the other classes for creating such beautiful lanterns to warm us and light our way on the longest night of the year!

Purdy Biddle- Class 4 teacher