Charlotte's Home

Charlotte is back from her sojourn in London.
That means two things
1. We now have a bevy(*) of dinosaurs decorating the house, and

2. The Giggle Quotient in the house has just doubled!

* What is the collective noun for a group of dinosaurs? Pod? Herd?

The End of an Era

Jayne has finished her secondary schooling at Hutt Valley High School. That severs a link that goes back to the 1970s.
Desiree and I both trained at what was called the Outpost (of Christchurch Teachers' Training College), which operated out of a prefab in the grounds of HVHS (the prefab is now the Marae). And we both had a 'section' (4 weeks of supervised teaching-practise) at the school.
I then got a job at HVHS in 1979, and worked there until I left teaching in early 1990.
Thereafter, Desiree worked there part-time (while the kids were young), and then full-time for a number of years.
Sarah Rose was a full-time student there for 5 years, Charlotte had 1 year there when Sacred Heart proved unwilling to accommodate her course preferences, and Jayne has just completed her 5 years full-time.
So, unless Desiree gets another job at HVHS, that's the end of our family association with the school!

Clever Clogs - Didn't She Do Well?!

Jayne finished her 5 years at Hutt Valley High School on a high note.
Earlier in the year we learned that she had been awarded an Excellence Scholarship by Victoria University, for achieving NCEA Level 2 with Excellence.

Massey University also awarded her a similar scholarship for the same reason.
These two awards lead to considerable soul-searching - Drama? Fashion? Art History? Massey (fashion)? Victoria (art history?)
And then, at the senior prize-giving (which I missed to my considerable chagrin because I was in Dunedin!) she was presented with a number of awards:

Distinction in English, Geography, Drama, Fashion Technology; Merit in Art History	The Pauline Wetton Cup for Drama
The David Kay Excellence Award as runner-up to Dux and Approxime Accessit Prize	Service to the School Council (Chairperson)

The Drama Prize is especially nice, because, on the shields which circle the wooden mount, is one for the year 200, on which is the name of her sister - Sarah Rose! Keeping it in the family! (Oh, and I worked with Pauline Wetton at HVHS, and knew her through Khandallah Arts Theatre, to which I belonged when younger.)
All of which got Jayne in the Hutt News again!