Kia ora!

With the seniors now on study leave, the school has felt unusually quiet — especially during those moments between exams! Unfortunately, Tuesday the 28th brought a blanket of snow that closed the school for the day, meaning our senior students missed out on their official last day on site.

Final exams kicked off on Tuesday the 4th, marking the beginning of an intense few weeks ahead. Having just sat my first exam, I can safely say I’m already looking forward to the finish line! Best of luck to everyone sitting assessments — you’ve all worked incredibly hard to get here, and I hope the effort you’ve put in pays off.

It’s also been exciting to see the progress on the new school build. Every time I drive past the field, I’m amazed at how quickly things are taking shape — it’s such an exciting time for our school community!

Ngā mihi,
Mackenzie Dunnicliff
Deputy Head Student

Between Study Leave and Saying Goodbye.

No one told me that going into study leave would make the fact that I’m finally leaving school feel so real. Study leave for me has always been that final push so I can get the last of my assessments finished, I just assumed this year would be like the past two. But this year, my study leave is filled with the long process of applying for a student loan and trying to find a place for me to live next year in the middle of studying for my exams. And I think that’s the scariest part, not the exams themselves, but the realization that next year I won’t be coming back to the place I’ve known for so long. The Twizel Area School bells won’t ring for me anymore and my name won’t be on the roll in the morning.

Out of 12 students in my year I’ve been at school with four of them since we were five, which makes leaving them a lot harder. In a weird sort of way, this class has been my family for so long. We have been spending five days a week for around 38 weeks together every year for thirteen years. I couldn’t imagine a better class to spend my final year with. We’ve grown up together not just in height or grades, but we’ve grown in the jokes that we’ve made, we’ve grown in the comfort of knowing that there will always be familiar faces around if something went wrong. 

Everyone, including myself will always find hard patches along the road, especially when it comes to school. I’ve been lucky enough to have wonderful people surround me and support me in my ideas and plans, as well as uplift me when the times get hard. I’ve had teachers who I’ve practically seen bend over backwards to make my classes work and encourage me to be the best I can be. They have taught me more than just knowledge. They have taught me how to think for myself and question things, how to care, and how to keep going when things get tough. 

It’s bittersweet that just as we are leaving, the new school is getting put up right in front of our eyes for next year's classes to go into. The new school has been a dream of everyone's for as long as I can remember. We spent years imagining what the new classrooms would look like, how it would feel to step into a brand new building, how warm it would be in winter when the heaters consistently worked, and how it would feel to stand close and look through windows that aren’t single glazed, so you can stand close to them without feeling the weather outside.

As we continue in study leave, we are preparing for more than our exams. We are stepping out of the chapters that we helped each other write, and into a new one that is ours alone. We are leaving behind classrooms, and pieces of ourselves that we won’t know are missing until we leave. We leave with the knowledge that the connections and friendships we built here will always be a part of who we are becoming.

Mackenzie Dunnicliff