On Monday 11th April, the ABSCH’s British Embassy Cup Writing Event 2022 took place online, and the winner was Matías Zurita, a Craighouse School pupil of Year 12A. With his moving essay “A Crow Hit the Window”, Matías won first place, competing against the representatives of the other 21 schools which are part of the Association of British Schools in Chile (ABSCH).

“Matías Zurita wrote a moving essay on self realisation and self growth. ‘A Crow Hit the Window’ captures the protagonist's inner journey in the form of phone conversation”, explained Miss Nithiya Balasubramanian, teacher of the Craighouse English Department.

In more good news from the English Department, Emilia Aninat, pupil of Grade 10, received an Honorable Mention for her 4th place in the English Speaking Union (ESU) Public Speaking Competition.

"Emilia was given only two weeks to write a speech on the topic ‘We expect too much from our heroes’. She recorded a five minute video of her original speech and submitted it to judging, and advanced to the semifinal round. Two weeks later, in the ESU’s Official Zoom meeting, Emilia’s live semi-final performance was immediately followed by questions about her speech and her own personal heroes in life. Finally, she advanced to the final round of the ESU Public Speaking Competition, where she received Honorable Mention. We could not be more proud of the hard work and dedication Emilia has shown these past few weeks”, explained Miss Genevieve Philbin, English Department teacher.

On Friday, March 18th, our Headmaster -Patrick Lyons- and the Head of Senior -Mark Cross recognized the former pupils from the 2021 generation who obtained high scores in the PDT. During the assembly, the former pupil Raimundo López Ugarte was recognised for obtaining a puntaje nacional, the highest possible score, score (850) in Science.

The former pupils awarded for achieving excellence in each subject, were the following:

Reading Comprehension: Constanza Paz Torrealba Catalán (803 points)

Maths:                            

Francisca Küster Daroca (824 points)

Juan Ignacio Küster Daroca (825 points)

Antonia Belén Pineda González (825 points)

Rubén Hanbin Zepeda Kim (825 points)

Constanza Lía Labowitz Urzúa (801 points)

Nicolás Malfetano Vaneri (801 points)

Science:        Isidora Jesús Aranis Urtubia (832 puntos)

History:        Nicolás Malfetano Vaneri (809 points)

Also, 49% of the 2021 generation obtained a score of 700 or more in at least one of the four PDT exams and in the national school.

The number Pi (3.14) had two days of celebration —Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th March—at Craighouse School. This concept, which is so important in Maths, was specifically reinforced through creative activities planned for all pupils from Years 5 to 8, who defined the number to several decimal places and analysed bar codes and birthdays, among many other activities. Pupils had a great time and learned about the importance of Pi in a fun, creative way.

After spending two years closed due to the pandemic, on Wednesday, 6th April the Primary Section Inquiry Centre finally reopened.

The nine hundred pupils of this section can now visit the Inquiry Centre, choose from more than three thousand books, and take pleasure in reading.

Meanwhile, new books were added to the collection available in the Middle & Senior Inquiry Centre. Among these nine books we can find “Violeta” by Isabel Allende, “La viuda” by José Saramago, “De ninguna parte” by Julia Navarro”, and “La bibliotecaria de Auschwitz” by Dita Kraus.

On Wednesday, 13th April, a new version of the Athletics Interhouse was held in our sports fields. In this much-anticipated sports event all pupils from Years 5 to 12 took part representing their houses—white, blue, red, and green—in different athletics events. The whites won first place with a score of 1,013 (618 for boys and 395 for girls), followed by the greens, with a score of 854. The blues came third (806 points), and finally the reds obtained 739 points.

With great enthusiasm Craighouse School has resumed in-person voluntary service activities. On Wednesay, 30thMarch a group of Senior pupils took part in Lo Barnechea’s “Programa de 4 a 7”. They visited the Infancia and Intermedia campuses of Colegio Lo Barnechea, where they enjoyed games, educational activities and reinforcement lessons with children from Prekinder to Year 5 who stay on at school while their parents are at work. This initiative will be repeated until November 30th and all Senior Section pupils will have the chance to participate.

Additionally, pupils of Year 9 had their first foundational experience on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th April in two encampments in Talagante Together with Fundación TECHO they cleaned streets and a local river, and helped to construct a community football field.

On Monday 21st March we saw many of our pupils wearing mismatched socks. This is how we celebrate Inclusion Day at Craighouse School, a fundamental concept of our Educational Project, which establishes and promotes solidarity, tolerance, and respect for diversity in all its forms.

On April 7th the Ministry for the Environment renewed Craighouse School’s SNCAE Certification (National System on Environmental Certification for Educational Institutions) until 2023, which lasts four years. Since 2019, our school remains the only school in Lo Barnechea recognised for its level of excellence in Environmental Education, a result of years of work and commitment by all members of our Craighouse School community, concerned with the protection of our environment.

(Caption: María Ignacia Convalía (Environmental Education Coordinator), Nicole Leyton (Ministry for the Environment’s representative), Ana María Cabrera (Round Square Coordinator), and María Paz Sauman (Director of Formative Area)