It was with great pride and joy that Mr Patrick Lyons, our Headmaster, and Ms Pilar Zabala, President of the Board, received a group of
Craighouse School former pupils who are part of the Chilean hockey and rugby teams. On the morning of Wednesday, 10^th August, the group arrived at our campus: Sofía Filipek (G-2012), Josefina Khamis (G-2010), Domenica Ananías (G-2016), Diego Escobar (G-2018), Salvador Lues (G-2017), Santiago Pedrero (G-2019), and Matías and Nicolás Garafulic (G-2018 & G-2016 respectively), where they spent some time with our school community. Due to a scheduling conflict, Rodrigo Fernández (G-2014) and Alfonso Escobar (G-2015) were not able to come. The hockey and rugby players took the time to sign autographs and talk to our Primary, Middle, and Senior pupils. Then, Mr Lyons invited them to breakfast together with members of the SLT, and the rugby players took the opportunity to present the Headmaster with an autographed shirt.

With several activities Craighouse School celebrated its traditional Solidarity Week between Tuesday 16thand Friday 19th August. This event, organised by the Department of Social Services and Experiential Learning, serves as an invitation for all our pupils to do acts of solidarity that can make a change for their peers and the environment. It all began on Tuesday, August 16th with an assembly for Middle and Senior, with comedian and Teletón ambassador Óscar Álvarez (“Alvarito”) as special guest, who shared his life story. We also received “Sonidos de Luz”, an orchestra from Fundación Luz made up of visually impaired musicians. Later that day, between 5 and 10 p.m., a group of pupils of Years 11 & 12, together with members of staff, took part in “Ruta Calle”, a volunteering programme for families. Also, during the whole week, pupils of all three sections hosted “Solidarity News”, a show that was broadcast on Instagram during Form Period, and containers were placed in the school to receive contributions for “Rehabilitemos Donando”, a campaign by Fundación Coaniquem. Thanks to everyone’s effort we were able to collect more than 2.000 kilos in articles that will be sell for an average of $7 millions (CLP) and will finance about 300 medical treatments for kids. 

The following item were collected by each section: 

·  Primary section: 320 toys and 240 books.

·  Middle section: 170 home decor items.

·  Senior section: 3.050 articles of clothing.

Additionally, by selling the “solidarity bracelets” we raise $3.579.870, funds that will be used to finance the 2023 Summer voluntary work, in which Senior pupils will be taking part.

In this edition of our School News we begin our Former Pupils Success Stories with the inspiring story of Juan Carlos Muñoz (G-1987), who is now Chilean Minister of Transport and Telecommunications.

“I began Kinder at Craighouse School in 1975, back in Manquehue, and I graduated in 1987 from El Rodeo. The school that my brother Gonzalo and I got to experience offered traditional British education and one of its main pillars was sports, mainly football and rugby. It was through sports that they encouraged team spirit, the value of group success rather than individual accomplishment, and the idea that joint achievement depends on the effort of each member.

Thanks to that lesson, teamwork and collective success are key aspects in the way I face life, and particularly work. The work we do at university level and especially in the government often means that we must make decisions that do not result in a personal benefit but in the benefit of other team members or the whole group. And that is absolutely necessary for a group to function effectively and successfully.

While I was at school I was able to take up my first leadership and service opportunities, and I realised that I was comfortable organising, leading, and also serving. I was class president for several years, and in 1987 the school named me Head Boy and captain of the blue team. I was also Vice-President of the Student Council.

Studying at Craighouse School was and continues to be a great privilege, both for its infrastructure and for the quality of its teachers. I received a top-quality education and the teachers who guided me played a key role in helping me acquire abilities that I have used throughout my life, specifically in my role as teacher at Universidad Católica, where I worked for over 25 years.

The school gave me valuable tools and taught me that I could go as far as I wanted. And during that time I made great friends. In Year 12-A, 1987 Generation, we developed comradeship and mutual affection, as well as lasting, intense, unconditional friendships, those that take shape in the playing fields and blossom in hallway conversations, in study sessions or in weekend activities.

I feel very grateful to my schoolmates and to life for the privilege of having studied at Craighouse School, where I learned to face difficulties, become stronger and develop my vocation to the fullest.”

During the second term, as a way of saying thank-you for their support and commitment to the Craighouse School community, our Headmaster, Mr Patrick Lyons, will be receiving different groups of volunteers with coffee & muffins. The first guests, on July 29th, were the thirty members of the Parents’ Association Traffic Brigade who every morning work to help improve traffic flow in our campus. Then, on August 19th came the turn of the leaders of COBS & COGS, the Craighouse School Old Boys and Old Girls sports club founded in 1972 by a group of former pupils who play hockey and rugby. And last, but not least, on Friday August 26th our Senior Prefects had their “Coffee & Muffins” with Mr Lyons at the quincho.  

With great joy, with games and with educational activities, Kinder pupils and their teachers celebrated “100 days of school” on August 19th. Years 1 to 3, meanwhile, invited the parents to learn together with their children and take active part in the classroom. Parents of Year 1 came on August 2nd and 3rd, Year 2 came on August 10th and 11th, and Year 3 came on August 17th and 18th.

On Wednesday 27th July we had our “Craigsale” in the Middle Section playground led by pupils of Years 5 & 6, who reproduced a market for the sale and purchase of different products.

The purpose of this initiative, organised by the Mathematics Department, was for pupils of Year 5 to buy products and crafts made by students of Year 6 for no more than $2,000.

To book a stand, pupils had to bring three 1.5 l bottles of water to donate to a campaign by Hogar de Cristo, led by the Craighouse School Social Service and Experiential Learning Area.

There are still places available for those Middle and Senior pupils who want to use the bus de acercamiento offered every morning by the Lo Barnechea Municipality for free. If you are interested, you can sign up on a Google form here. Please consider that only pupils from Years 5 to 12 will be able to take the bus and that you must fill in one form per child. When there are no more places available the registration process will be automatically closed and you will no longer be able to access the form.

The bus will begin its route at 7 a.m. in Avda. El Rodeo 12525, where our old school used to be, and after five stops, it will arrive at our current campus in Avenida Pie Andino at 8. a.m. 

The stops are the following:

1. Av. El Rodeo 12.525 (by the old Craighouse School building): 7.10 a.m.

2. Corner of Av. Huinganal with El Rodeo (north lane): 7.16 a.m.

3. Corner of Av. Pie Andino with Huinganal (north lane): 7.22 a.m.

4. Corner of Av. La Dehesa with Pie Andino (north lane): 7.27 a.m.

5. Corner of Av. Pedro Lira Urquieta with Las Hualtatas (north lane): 7.37 a.m.

6. Av. Los Trapenses (in front of Los Litres, north lane): 7.46 a.m. 

7. Craighouse School: 8.00 a.m.

With the participation of rabbi Ari Sigal, on Friday 5th August the Jewish Religion Department held an inauguration ceremony to install a mezuzah. Pupils and staff members who attended this event learned more about the meaning of this ancient tradition that brings people together and protects every place where this symbol is placed.

The Hebrew word mezuzah means “doorpost”. In one of the most widely read fragments of the Torah, the Jewish people are commanded to place certain words on their door frames. According to the Talmud, a sofer (scribe) must write the words of a biblical passage on a sacred scroll to be hung. In order to protect the parchment, it became customary to insert it into a casing that can be made from different materials and affix it to the door.

On Wednesday 3rd August during an assembly, the topics for the 2022 Senior Section Alianzas were revealed. This event has been scheduled for Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd September. This year, different music styles were chosen: Pop (white), Hip Hop (yellow), Fancy (green), Rock (ed) and Disco (blue), and the Student Council has already presented the programme for the two days of competitions. In 2021, the blue alianza was the winner.