14 minute read
Kahunui Year 13 Leadership experience
Our newest Kahunui Experience: Developing our Year 13 Girls
The Kahunui Programme is an integral part of every St Cuthbert’s girls’ leadership development, as is the ‘Big Sister, Little Sister’ model, which supports connections between girls across the Senior School. With this in mind, we have launched a new Kahunui experience, for every Year 13 Leadership Committee representative.
This amazing five-day, four-night experience provides Year 13 girls with the opportunity to revisit Kahunui and take part in an outdoors-based programme, with leadership opportunities embedded in the day-to-day curriculum. The programme also includes some of the girls’ much-loved activities including kayaking, blokarting, a solo-survival experience, and a visit to the iconic Kahunui waterfall. The trip enables students to witness how their sustainability projects have come to fruition since their last visit, and, importantly, concludes with the Year 13 girls welcoming an Intake of their Year 10 ‘Little Sisters’ to Kahunui.
The first Intake to experience this amazing new programme included our Year 13 Development and Games Committee, and in addition: Carmel Ah Chong, Bella Browne, Chloe Browne, Becky Fala and Jemima Hawkesby.
What impact did your Year 10 Kahunui experience have on you?
Bella: Arriving at Kahunui in the summer months of Intake 7, I was a nervous yet extremely excited Year 10. I quickly learned through the various activities, that the feelings of excitement and nerves were the qualities that in fact helped me grow important skills in my Kahunui journey. Attitude was the first key lesson for me. Being excited not only helped equip me for the challenges and encouraged me to take every opportunity at hand, but also helped develop an eager and positive attitude towards everything. It has shaped my values and gave me life skills as a 14-year-old, that I still use today and most likely will, for the rest of my life.
Jemima: In Year 10, I went to Kahunui with the aim of seeing the world differently. I learnt to live in the present and take any opportunity offered to me to see through a positive light and find the good in everything. I found ways to be a leader and improve skills in the outdoors through challenging myself and analysing my surroundings. Competence, maturity and hardwork are some of the qualities that made me embrace the time I spent at Kahunui, in 2018. I feel very grateful for my time spent there.
How did it feel to re-visit Kahunui as a Year 13?
Carmel: Looking around as we arrived, I couldn’t help but feel immensely proud and humbled to see how far each of us had come since Year 10 and how close we’d become. It goes to show how fast time flies and I think a lot of us felt that. We were all making the most of time at Kahu, knowing that for most of us, it’d be our final time there and one of our last experiences shared as Year 13s.
Becky: Once arriving with our Intake of Year 13 girls, memories started to flood back with endless stories about humorous and challenging times we had experienced whilst on our month away from home. It felt fulfilling to be back, as Year 10. Kahunui was one of the most life changing experiences we girls were lucky enough to be a part of – a time when we each made friends, memories and learnt life skills we will cherish and use forever.
How rewarding was it welcoming the Year 10 girls to Kahunui?
Carmel: The welcoming was a gratifying moment, having once been there ourselves, it was both exciting and heart-warming to see our younger sisters embark on a journey that ties all of us St Cuthbert’s girls together.
Jemima: The girls were standing in front of us with some being excited and some being a little nervous, and somehow I couldn’t put myself in their shoes even though that was me only a few years ago. I guess I just couldn’t put myself in a position to have expectations as I already knew how it all went and how I felt coming out of Kahunui. I felt very excited for them to be able to exceed their expectations, like I did, and come out of the month with hopefully, that same perspective.
What did you think about the amazing developments that have happened at Kahunui?
Chloe: When returning to Kahunui for the second time as a Year 13 student, there had been some noticeable progression. Being present when introducing Farmer House to Kahunui was memorable for me as a 2021 leaver, as when I was in Year 10 this House was only just having the foundation work built. Once returning, being able to see the finished house was pivotal for me as I’m sure it will be for our Year 13 cohort, as they too, will get to experience these experiential changes which will bring back fond memories of our Year 10 Kahunui adventures.
Jemima: The developments that have happened over the past year are very impressive, as is the fact that during a global pandemic, with so many disruptions and an extended lockdown, every single Year 10 managed to get down to Kahunui.
Any last words?
Carmel: The Kahunui experience is just one of the many steps in the St Cuthbert’s journey, that develops girls into young women, enabled with a holistic skill set, take on the world. Some say it is life changing and I’d have to agree!
Kahunui capacity and connection boosted thanks to the Farmer Family
We are enormously grateful to the Farmer family, who made a generous donation last year to build Farmer House, the newest accommodation building at Kahunui. The house was officially opened on 19 February 2021 with the first Year 13 Leadership Intake in attendance, including Dean and Chanelle’s daughter and Year 13 Games Committee member, Brooke Farmer.
The Trust Board has named the fifth student house on campus, in honour of the Farmer family, as without their continued support for Kahunui, additional Intakes of girls at our remote campus, including the Year 13 Committee leadership intakes, would not be possible.
This new accommodation provides the programme at Kahunui with greater capacity and flexibility to help protect the sustainability of the campus and supports the team to continue to deliver outstanding life-changing experiences for students.
The opening event started with a traditional pōwhiri, led by local kaumatua and kuia as well as Arapeta and Aroha Mamaku, who are on the Kahunui staff. Once the girls were welcomed and had a chance to greet staff and representatives from local iwi, Koro Jury gave a karakia to bless the house and Head Girl Carmel Ah Chong and Brooke Farmer, cut the ribbon together to officially open the building for the new arrivals. The Farmers have been huge advocates of Kahunui and the transformative experiences it has provided our girls for over 14 years:
“In our view, Kahunui is a major asset to St Cuthbert’s – it gives the girls an opportunity to learn through different experiences away from everyday distractions such as social media and digital devices. They have the opportunity to participate in activities and learn skills they might not otherwise be exposed to and they face challenges they wouldn’t face in everyday life.”
The family’s support for Kahunui has also extended to the Epsom campus this year through a beautiful sculptural addition to the Information Centre Atrium. A large river stone necklace by Chris Charteris now hangs to the right, on entering the atrium from the Robertson Corridor. Titled ‘Lessons from Nature’, this piece has been gifted to the school by the Farmer family to symbolise the Kahunui campus.
A physical Kahunui feature at Epsom has long been desired by the school, and we are thrilled that Dean Farmer and his family have championed this project. The artwork will soon be accompanied by plaques engraved with the names of all the students who have won the ‘By Love Serve’ award for every Year 10 Kahunui Intake, since the first in 2008.
The time has come to give those who have not yet experienced Kahunui, a chance to understand a little more about what the four-week stay offers.
“We suggested it was time to tell the story of Kahunui in a visible way – without taking anything away from the actual experience. The girls take pride in having attended Kahunui and ‘Lessons From Nature’ is an acknowledgement of that – and something to aspire to for those who will be attending in the future,” Dean shares.
With the sculpture’s use of river stone and its clear suggestion of connection and continuity through the neatly stacked stone ‘beads’, the piece represents the bond to nature, community and generations past, that we have come to associate with the Kahunui experience. We are proud to have Chris Charteris’s sculptures available to our students and look forward to incorporating this artwork into our Art and Art History programmes in the years to come.
River Stone necklace by Chris Charteris, a beautiful addition to the Atrium
Boarders from ‘83 reunite
Eight of the Class of ’83 came from across the North Island to reminisce about the Boarding chapter of our life. We were privileged to have our retreat at the beautiful Red Barn at Lake Kareka. It was perfect for hikers, bikers, fishing, and boating with Whakarewarewa Forest and multiple lakes at our disposal. Here is our reflection.
As each traveller arrived the cacophony amplified, visibly startling the deer fenced beside us. By the time Paula Jackson rolled in after a marathon trip from Queenstown via her home in Wellington, it was deafening. Bronwyn Kennaway had turned up first and failed to recognise the next arrival, Sally Ross. There was then a steady “Guess who’s here” for the next few hours – Sally McDougall, Jody O’Sullivan, Catherine Storey, Cathy Carr, and Jane Patterson. We quickly digested whoknew-what, about others in the year, without forgetting to download a staff update. The photo albums were dragged out and memories unlocked. A lot of mysterious blanks were finally filled in with confessions about who did what!
Stories of note during our time in Boarding unfolded and included the inevitable terrible food in the dining room (weird trays of food shared among tables), dead ants and the accompanying activities on April Fools’ Day, goings on in the sick-bay with Miss Kyle (toothpaste in the mouth to get the mercury up), antics that would not be regarded as model behaviour – Dilworth discos, ballroom dancing lessons with St Kent’s, movie nights under what is now the Junior Gym, the trauma of the Easter-showman doubleintrusion in Dunblane, the attire for the long march to the Presbyterian church, Sunday outings with day-bugs, as well as, most importantly, the impact certain staff members and peers had on us! We turned in near midnight the first night and rose to see Paula head off at dawn to keep up training for her ultra-marathons.
After a nod to the cooked breakfast, we headed to walk the 5km periphery of the Blue Lake and then admired Cathy, Catherine, Jody, and Jane for wanting to take a plunge. The rest of us preferred the lure of coffee served from the Airstream cart!
After a leisurely lunch, we packed up our swimwear and went to see what Rotorua had to offer – the Polynesian Pools! It has been sympathetically revamped, and we were rewarded with heady relaxation and yes, plenty more conversational updates. We had discovered mud face packs in the gift shop so rushed home to plaster ourselves and create a photo montage of “whom-do-you-recognise”.
More stories followed, but this time from our recent life. Most involved unfortunate tragedies and events that proceeded to unfold around them. Memorably, when pressed to recount “the weirdest moment” there was a chapter in London where one of the members of the group had worked multiple lengthy medical shifts, headed out to attend to a pressing matter at a bank on the way home, randomly got caught up in a hold-up and when following orders by the thieves to “get-down”, lay as directed on the floor…. and went to sleep for the entire episode!
It was bittersweet to wake up and have to say our goodbyes the next day, but it was wonderful to have caught up and reconnected.
For more stories of Old Girls, go to page 67.
Bringing Joy Through Song
Since graduating from the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art with a Bachelor of Performing Arts, Shaan Kloet (née Antunovich) (2007) has had an exciting professional career performing throughout New Zealand.
Shaan’s career highlights have included: Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west, in the North Island premiere of ‘Wicked’, the musical, New Zealand tours of ‘CATS’ as Grizabella in 2011 and Rumpleteaser in 2018 and a New Zealand tour of ‘The Pirates of Penzance’. She has been guest artist in Opera North’s ‘Opera in the Garden’ and performed with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and throughout New Zealand with, One Entertainment – one of New Zealand’s leading entertainment companies.
In 2017, Shaan first played the title character in ‘Mary Poppins’, the musical. Stuff Media celebrated Shaan’s amazing performance saying, “Shaan Kloet was perfectly composed and eloquent... She had earlier called Poppins her dream role, and after her performance, she appeared to be a dream casting choice.” In 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Shaan revisited the role of Mary Poppins, at Auckland’s Civic Theatre. This production of ‘Mary Poppins’ was the biggest stage production to have opened globally since the pandemic. “It was such a surreal feeling – it was a relief that we were able to get the show on the stage after being postponed twice! So much hard work and time goes into a stage production of this size and, to know that we were in the biggest stage production in the world, at the time, was amazing – I had an overall feeling of gratitude,” Shaan says.
“To have a career in the Arts you need a solid sense of resilience and flexibility,” Shaan says. “However, the COVID-19 pandemic has definitely increased the need for these skills. I have just tried to stay as positive as possible and tried to take each day as it comes.” Before the cast started their second round of rehearsals, Shaan found out that she was pregnant with her first child. “It was so exciting, but I thought to myself this could be amazing or very average timing.” However, everything was fine and her childto-be enjoyed flying across the Civic stage as much as she did!
Although the year has had its challenges, Shaan has been in conversations with a lot of other performers around the world and she has expressed how grateful she is to be in New Zealand. “Our response to the pandemic has been amazing and to be one of the only places in the world to be putting on events and productions is something to be very proud of.”
As well as performing, Shaan is the Operations Director in her family business, People Potential Limited. People Potential is a private training provider located across Northland, Auckland, and Hamilton. One of People Potential’s key focus is to enhance the education of every individual with whom the company works and Shaan loves the balance she is able to create with being both in the performing arts industry and the New Zealand education sector.
Shaan’s commitment to ‘By Love Serve’ also saw her play a part in the St Cuth’s Together calling campaign in 2020, which connected Old Girls, current students, and community members with our older Old Girls. Shaan says, “I thought it was an awesome initiative. I touched base with a few Old Girls both via online and over the phone. It was a great way to just reach out and connect with people during a time when connection was so important. I had some lovely conversations with like-minded women and it was really enjoyable.”
