Ravenscar House Museum, which opened in Christchurch in late 2021, is the legacy of Cashmere High School Foundation pupil, Susan Turtle, and her late husband, James Wakefield.
Ravenscar House is inspired by house museums around the world and houses the couple’s private collection of historic and contemporary New Zealand paintings, sculptures, antiquities, decorative glass and designer furniture, which were gathered over four decades and were all previously displayed in their home in Scarborough. Sadly, the house was damaged beyond repair in the February 2011 earthquake but their art collection was able to be saved and gifted to the city in accordance with Susan and James’ wishes.
Ravenscar House is located opposite the Canterbury Museum and is open daily from 10am-5pm. Admission charges apply.
2022 March
Due to COVID restrictions the Foundation Pupils were unable to have their annual dinner at the end of 2021 so instead opted to have a BYO picnic in the school grounds.
Although there weren’t as many attendees as usual for this event, the organisers were delighted to have people there who hadn’t attended previous events. Those who attended enjoyed an interesting, relaxed and pleasant catch-up.
With 75% of schools across New Zealand now dealing with active Omicron cases it’s not surprising that a school the size of Cashmere High is one of them.
As at the end of last week, there were 112 active cases in the school with 285 staff and students isolating. Principal Joe Eccleton says the biggest challenge has been staffing their classes and keeping the school open. To ensure this can happen all Year 13 students have been asked to remain at home this week and continue their learning online so that staff can be redeployed to cover other classes. If staff shortages remain an issue next week, the Year 12 students will be asked to remain at home for a week and this system will continue, rotating through the Year 11 to Year 13 students, until there are sufficient staff on site to cover all classes.
Update 24/03/2022: There are now only 58 positive cases in the school and 174 staff/students isolating so all students will be back on site next week attending classes as per their normal timetable.