By: Mr Patrick Lyons

“My trip to the UK was filled with emotions. Pride, excitement, sorrow, loss, satisfaction and hope. My journey began with a personal family moment as my wife, Sofia, and I took our youngest daughter, Hannah, (or Miss Hannah, as our Little Darlings Playgroup children know her) to Cheltenham to begin her University career. However, once this bitter-sweet moment was over, we traveled to London to begin representing Craighouse School in a number of key moments.

I had several interviews to complete with candidates for positions at the school but during this process, we received some sad news. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II had passed away and her reign of 70 years was at an end. I knew this loss and the attachment to our late queen went far beyond our island as I have lead our pupils and community on several occasions in the singing of the words 'God Save the Queen'. I remembered her portrait on my wall and seeing in the Rectoria at Craighouse the MBE medal presented personally by Queen Elizabeth to our beloved founder Mrs Joan Darling, in 1976. So, in representation of the school and our Craighouse Community, Sofia and I walked to Buckingham Palace to leave a card and a tribute by the Mall alongside thousands of others.

While in London, we also journeyed to Royal Holloway to meet not only our Year 7 pupils and teachers, but also our founders' daughter, Judy Gammie with her husband Ian. We had lunch with Philip Rovnak and his team of Craighouse teachers before meeting the staff working with our pupils at the College to develop their English skills in a fun and engaging series of activities. Judy and Ian were impressed by the programme the school had put together and fondly recounted old tales of Craighouse from their time in Chile. The Year 7 pupils were lively, happy and so glad not to have to wear facemasks for three weeks.

We were then fortunate to be welcomed by Ben Vessey, Headmaster of Canford School who hosted our senior sports teams. We watched our girls inaugurate the school's new hockey pitch and the boys giving their all for the Craighouse shirt on the rugby field. It was wonderful to see the enjoyment, the camaraderie and the expression of strong values the pupils displayed both on and off the pitch.

I would like to congratulate Mark Cross and his team for achieving success not only in the teams' results but in their growth as people. Canford expressed a desire to build on our long-held sporting relations and work with us in academic and communication projects too. Watch this space.

Finally, before returning to Chile I was able to visit the University of Plymouth and negotiate the return of our highly successful teaching practice placement scheme. This means that after a break of five years, we hope in 2023 to welcome final year Primary teaching students to join us once more from the UK.

All in all, in spite of the sad moments, I enjoyed representing the school and forming connections with staff, pupils and old friends of the school. We have a lot to be thankful for and much to be proud of”.

These four years of waiting have paid off. Due to the pandemic, the last sports tour was held in 2018, but on September 5^th 2022, a group of 49 Senior pupils and 7 members of the Craighouse School staff took this trip in which they spent 20 days learning and having a great time in Ireland, England and Spain.

By Sofía Mahuzier and Sebastián Bianchi, tour captains.

“This tour was a huge experience that will mark us for the rest of our lives. We left Chile on the morning of Monday, 5^th September, and after a long, exhausting flight, we arrived in a town near Dublin to have lunch and explore Malahide. After leaving our things in the hotel, we began training and focusing on our upcoming matches. Next morning we went on a tour round Croke Park, where we learned about Irish national sports, the Gaelic Games. We had a lovely pasta lunch, with lots of garlic to shoo away our opponents, and in the afternoon we arrived at St Andrew’s College, happy and proud to be wearing our uniform for the first time. We were able to win both games, 31-8 for the boys and 3-1 for the girls. On September 8^th we walked round downtown Dublin and we later played hurling, gaelic football and handball.

The following day we boarded a ferry to Wales that took us to Holyhead and then to Rydal Penrhos School. The next stop was Caernarfon, where we had lunch and did a bit of sightseeing. Then we packed our suitcases once again and headed to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we visited Shakespeare’s birthplace. From there we went on to Gloucester to enjoy a rugby game (Gloucester vs Wasps). After a stop in the historic Roman Baths, we took a bus to Downside School where we played our second match. Despite the rain, both teams managed to win their games (43-0 for the boys and 8-0 for the girls). Our next destination was Bournemouth, a quiet city where we were able to wash our clothes, rest, train and focus on what we had all been waiting for: the match against Canford. As is tradition, the teams were very nervous, and in spite of our opponents’ excellent level, we won again: 34-0 in rugby and 2-1 in hockey. The following morning, after a fun stop at Oxford, we arrived in London where we walked along the streets, did some shopping and struggled getting up for our early runs. On September 18^th we woke up feeling more Chilean than ever and the boys played their penultimate game, this time against Roselyn Park, and came out unbeaten once again (47-7). The next day it was the girls’ turn, who played against St Benedict’s School and scored 4 goals. We finished off the day all together for a lovely meal where we took the opportunity to say good-bye to our dear coach Anita Cabrera, who had to continue her trip as Round Square representative, and to thank Mr Elías Santillán for his participation in eight tours, this being his final one. We then continued our journey to our last and most awaited destination: Madrid. There, our rugby players, who had just landed, played their final game against Club Pozuelo and won 75-0. The girls, in turn, played two games the next day, also against Club Pozuelo, and won both (5-0 and 2-1). During our last evening in Madrid we had a well-deserved celebration, not only for the sports results, but also for the great group that we had become. This was a dream come true for us, and it exceeded all our expectations.”

Click here to read the UK TOUR magazine.

2019 was the last year in which our pupils of Year 7 were able to take part in the study trip to England, all due to the pandemic. On August 25^th, however, we were able to resume this great experience, when a group of 104 pupils of that level went on the UK English Study Trip 2022, accompanied by the Head of Middle, Pablo Salvador, and teachers Alejandra Bravo, Paulina Saavedra, Carolina Bellei, Gloria Vargas, Phil Rovnak, Luke Cooper and Byron Lawson.

The group stayed at Royal Holloway, a campus of the University of London located in Egham, during the three weeks of their trip, where they also had intensive English lessons. From there they toured London and visited the National History Museum, National Art Gallery, British Museum, Covent Garden and London Zoo, and were amazed with the views from the London Eye. They also went to the West End Theatre to see “The Lion King” musical and they even went on a cruise down the Thames, among other activities. They visited the roman baths in the city of Bath, the ruins at Stonehenge, Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and Warwick with its impressive castle.

On Friday, 16th September they arrived safe and sound after enjoying a unique, enriching adventure, and making new friends.

By: Round Square Craighouse School delegates

On September 18th, 2022, the Round Square International Conference (RSIC) 2022, was held at Oxford, England. 172 schools from all around the globe attended this activity, whose motto was “Take Less, Be More” and summed up around 37 countries. 8 pupils from Craighouse School -Agustina García, Catalina Oelckers, Helena Young, Inés Romero, Magdalena Villa, Triana Gaggliardi, Santiago Figueroa and Sebastián Zúñiga- participated in the event and our school was the only one from Chile that had the opportunity to take part in this amazing experience. They were accompanied by Mrs Ana María Cabrera and Mr Matías Stevens.

The delegates stayed for 3 nights at Oxford, where various activities took place: Cultural Evening, where they performed our traditional Chilean dance “The Diablada” and enjoyed different dances from all around the world. Also, they had the chance to hear keynotes speakers at the “New Theatre of Oxford” talking about topics like energy and environment and personal leadership. Additionally, our pupils learned a local dance “Ceilidh” and participated in barraza groups where they interacted with students from different countries, sharing thoughts and knowledge.

After Oxford came the Wales adventure. Students spent 3 days camping near the town of Saint Davids. The first day, the delegates went to a Bug Farm, where people work with bugs to produce food, since in the future the population growth will be so enormous that meat will not be an option to feed everyone. One alternative to this problem is obtaining protein from different types of bugs and pupils had the chance to taste some food product made with bugs, like cookies or burgers.

Also in Wales, the delegates had various activities that took them out of their comfort zone so they could change their mind and be more open to different possibilities, from eating insects in the bug farm, to sleeping in a tent, to living without wifi and jumping to the ocean from different heights. Time went extremely fast during these days, but we will treasure them forever.