On Friday 22nd April, in the context of the celebration of Earth Day, Craighouse School inaugurated its new Greenhouse. The events (organised separately for the three sections) were attended by all pupils and teachers, as well as special guests led by our Headmaster, Mr Lyons, and the president of the Board of Directors, Pilar Zabala, as well as the former pupils Gonzalo Muñoz -expert in environmental management- and Cristián Daly, councillor for Municipalidad de Lo Barnechea.
This milestone marks the end of a project that began in June 2020 and that was able to see the light thanks to the leadership of a group of Round Square pupils and the Taylor Oyarzún, Simonetti Taylor and Taylor Lira families, who created and supported the project.

After a wait of almost 3 years, on Saturday May 14th our beloved Rugby and Hockey Charles T. Darling Tournament returned to the Craighouse School fields. Eight other schools took part in this event: Santiago College, The Grange School, Redland School, Dunalastair Valle Norte and Dunalastair Las Condes, The Mackay School, St Margaret's School (Viña del Mar) and Saint John’s School (Concepción).
More than 580 pupils played rugby and hockey, and 250 parents visited our campus.
Craighouse School came in second in hockey (senior category) after The Grange School, and sixth in the intermediate category, won by Santiago College. In rugby, our school won second place in the senior and intermediate categories, while The Grange School came in first in both.

With a choir made up of more than eight hundred voices, on Monday, May 9th our Primary pupils celebrated the 53rd birthday of our dear headmaster, Mr Patrick Lyons.
The children sang “Happy Birthday” and, as a surprise, performed “Eight Days a Week” by The Beatles. During the birthday ceremony, which took place early in the morning in the volleyball courts, our pupils gave Mr Lyons several presents that they had made themselves. Our headmaster was very moved and gave his sincere thanks to the group.
 

After two years of pandemic, on Tuesday, 26th April Craighouse School opened its doors to receive more than one hundred new families who are applying to Prekinder 2023 during our traditional Open Day. From 9 to 11 in the morning, these families walked around the school guided by 38 pupils of the Senior Section and 10 members of the SLT. The participants were delighted with the students’ self-confidence, the richness of our Formative and Academic Curricula and the school’s infrastructure and facilities.

With parades, batucadas, costumes, contests, storytelling activities and plays, Craighouse School celebrated Book Week from Monday 25th and Friday 29th April. The Spanish and English Departments, the Inquiry Centres and the Primary, Middle and Senior Sections organised a number of activities to celebrate World Book Day and encourage a love of reading.

In-person Formational Experiences are back at full speed here at Craighouse School. During Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 20th April our students from Year 10 visited two encampments -one in Colina “Campamento 21 de Mayo” and a second one in Huechuraba, “Guillermo Subiabre”- sponsored by the TECHO Foundation. The community work that the students carried out was improving the social club and cleaning the surroundings of the camp.

By Eduardo Riquelme, Head of the Spanish Department
 
On Monday, May 2nd, the Lyrical Poetry Encounter, organised by the Language Committee of the Association of British Schools in Chile (ABSCH), took place online. This event was hosted by Bradford School and around 40 pupils of the member schools took part and had the opportunity to spend time with renowned Chilean poet Rosabetty Muñoz. The author talked about her creative process and her publications, and led a creative writing workshop with the participation of pupils Arianna Cadena and Mateo Gutiérrez, of Years 11 E and B, respectively. Our students wrote poetic texts and received personal feedback from the poet, who expressed admiration for their work, their creative process and the themes and motives present in their work. Congratulations, Anna and Mateo, for representing our school in this event, demonstrating that Craighouse School is indeed a community of readers.
 

Fifty representatives of more than twenty Round Square schools got together in Bogota (Colombia) on May 6th and 7th in the 2022 Americas Forum. The objective was to discuss the values that inspire Round Square, reconnect and strengthen the Round Square network.
Representing Craighouse School were our Round Square Coordinator, Ana María Cabrera, and the Director of Arts and Environmental Education Coordinator, María Ignacia Convalía.
Colegio Los Nogales and The English School in Bogota hosted this event, which included presentations and moments of reflection on the pacification process that Colombia is going through.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, May 4th, our eco-leaders of Year 6 took part in a Round Square event that dealt with the topic “conservation of species”. Our students had the opportunity to interact with pupils from schools all over the world, who shared their view and their concerns on the conservation of sea turtles and other endangered species in each country.