THURSDAY 31 JULY – FRIDAY 1 AUGUST 2025
ST ANDREW’S COLLEGE | RANGI RURU GIRLS’ SCHOOL
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SCHOOLS’ CONFERENCE 2025
Day 1
SCHEDULE
Thursday 31 July
All events will be held in the St Andrew’s College Centennial Chapel unless otherwise indicated.
8.15am Gathering / Registration (Strowan House dining room)
9.00am Welcome St Andrew’s College Kapa Haka
9.30am Senior College School Chapel Service
Join this school service led by St Andrew’s College Chaplain Rev. Paul Morrow.
10.00am Morning Tea (Strowan House dining room)
10.45am Introduction –REV. PAUL MORROW AND REV. STEPHANIE WELLS
10.55am PROFESSOR WOLFGANG RACK
12.00pm RT REV. HAMISH GALLOWAY Sustainability through a Biblical Worldview.
1.00pm Lunch (Strowan House dining room)
1.45pm Annual General Meeting
2.15pm KATE SIMCOCK (Head Prefect) Sustainability Practice at St Andrew’s College.
2.45pm Breakout Groups: Chaplains | Principals | Board
3.45pm Free Time (Option to tour the College)
6.00pm Pre–dinner Drinks and Entertainment (Strowan House staffroom)
6.45pm Dinner and Entertainment (Strowan House dining room)
Day 2
SCHEDULE
Friday 1 August
All events will be held in the St Andrew’s at Rangi Ruru Church unless otherwise indicated.
8.00am School Tours (Optional – meet in the Te Koraha Boardroom)
8.30am Gathering / Registration (Te Koraha Boardroom)
8.45am Devotion
Join this school service led by Rangi Ruru Girls’ School Chaplain Rev. Phyll Harris.
9.15am MAPIHI MARTIN-PAUL “Te mana o te taiao, te mana o te rangatahi” –The strength of the environment, the strength of youth.
10.15am Morning Tea (Atawhai)
10.45am MELISSA CAMPBELL Appreciative Inquiry Workshop.
12.30pm Lunch (Atawhai)
1.15pm KATE RIVERS (Director of Sustainability) Sustainability at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School and Tour (Atawhai).
2.30pm REFLECTION
2.45pm Farewell / Poroporoaki
3.00pm Conference Close
CONFERENCE HOSTS:
DAY 1 SPEAKERS
Thursday 31 July
Wolfgang Rack. As a glaciologist, Professor Wolfgang Rack studies the mass balance of the polar cryosphere with focus on sea ice –ocean – ice shelf interaction. He discovered the instability of Antarctic outlet glaciers following the Larsen-A ice shelf collapse and led a research group pioneering the satellitebased measurement of grounding line ice thickness in Antarctica. As a research tool for mapping ice dynamics and thickness he makes use of satellite remote sensing (Synthetic Aperture Radar – SAR; interferometric SAR – InSAR). An essential part of Professor Rack’s research is satellite validation using airborne measurements (electromagnetic induction sounding of sea ice), ground-based geophysics (phase sensitive radar for detecting basal melting of ice shelves; GPS and tiltmeters for ice shelf tidal bending), amongst other glaciological research tools. He has spent 15 field seasons in Antarctica and has participated in ground validation and airborne geophysical work in the Arctic (Greenland, Svalbard), Patagonia, and the Alps (Europe and New Zealand). More recently, he led a team for developing a drone system to measure snow depth on sea ice and participated in airborne sea ice thickness measurements in the Ross Sea. Professor Rack’s professional appointments include both Director of Gateway Antarctica and Professor within the School of Earth and Environment, Faculty of Science, University of Canterbury. Professor Wolfgang Rack is married to Dr Ursula Rack, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Gateway Antarctica who has also lectured in polar history within Antarctic Studies courses at the University of Canterbury since 2010.
Rt Rev. Hamish Galloway is the minister of the Cashmere Presbyterian Church in Christchurch. He was Chaplain at St Andrew’s College for 21 years and has maintained a keen interest in the Presbyterian Church school’s movement. When he was moderator of the PCANZ 2022–2023 his theme was international connection. This theme is close to his heart after the years spent connecting with young people around faith and hope issues as a school chaplain.
Kate Simcock is a dedicated Year 13 student at St Andrew’s College, as Head Prefect. Her commitment to sustainability has been unwavering since Year 9, culminating in her role as Head of Sustainability in 2024. Kate is pleased to see many younger students getting involved, which she views as a positive development for the future. In addition to her academic pursuits, where she ranked 6–10 in 2024, Kate is actively engaged in a variety of co-curricular activities. She excels in sports, playing both hockey and tennis, and is also deeply involved in cultural activities, including choir, debating, and school productions.
DAY 2 SPEAKERS
Friday 1 August
Maphi Martin-Paul. As a Strategic Advisor Māori at Boffa Miskell, Mapihi works with whānau, hapū and iwi Māori across Aotearoa in a diverse, wide range of capacities from landscape architecture to resource management, planning and ecology. She is driven by ensuring environmental outcomes meaningfully consider and reflect a Te Ao Māori worldview. After finishing at Rangi Ruru Girls School in 2011, Mapihi went on to study a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Hons.) at Lincoln University, she went on to play significant roles on project teams involved in many of the key anchor and regeneration projects of the Christchurch rebuild. Mapihi was seconded to the Matapopore Charitable Trust for 4.5 years as a landscape architect specialising in providing strategy skills, facilitation of engagement and working as part of design teams for both public and private projects. Recently, she has become increasingly involved in weaving together mātauranga Māori (traditional knowledge) with Western science through significant cultural health monitoring and ecological restoration work across Te Waipounamu/the South Island, particularly in the Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere catchment and forming meaningful relationships with Papatipu Rūnanga.
Melissa Campbell is an experienced educational leader and currently serves as Assistant Principal – Teaching and Learning at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School. With a career spanning a range of faith-based schools, Melissa has developed deep expertise in leading professional learning that empowers educators to reflect on their practice, grow their craft, and stay connected to their purpose. Melissa is passionate about creating collaborative spaces where educators and leaders in education can engage in meaningful dialogue about teaching, learning, and the role of faith in education. Her leadership is grounded in strengths-based approaches, coaching, and reflective practice, with a particular focus on building learning cultures that honour both tradition and innovate with a lens to the future. Melissa brings both strategic and relational strengths to her work, supporting schools to navigate change while remaining deeply connected to their values. She is committed to helping educators sustain their faith foundations and flourish in their practice, both individually and collectively.
Appreciative Inquiry Workshop:
Sustaining Our Faith – Shaping the Future of Presbyterian Faith in Our Schools.
What does it mean to sustain our Presbyterian faith foundations in a changing world? What strengths do we already hold, and where do new opportunities lie?
In this interactive Appreciative Inquiry session, we will come together as leaders and educators in Presbyterian schools to explore the future of our faith identity. Grounded in the principles of appreciative inquiry, this session will draw on collective wisdom to:
• Reconnect with our Presbyterian heritage and values.
• Share stories where faith is visible and meaningful in our communities.
• Reflect on the role of faith for students and staff today — and into the future.
• Explore practical ways we can nurture, sustain, and grow our faith foundations.
This is a chance to pause, reflect, and reimagine — centring hope-filled conversations about sustaining our shared faith, purpose, and belonging in Presbyterian schools for the years ahead.
Kate Rivers is Director of Sustainability and Head of Visual Arts at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School. During the past ten years, Kate has worked alongside ākonga and staff to establish a school wide Sustainability Philosophy and related policies. She mentors and empowers ākonga to lead initiatives. Kate has engaged and mobilised the school community to think and act responsibly about caring for Papatūānuku | Mother Earth. Rangi Ruru has reduced waste by 58%, reduced carbon emissions, adopted a stretch of the Ōtakaro river to care for, established a Reuse Depot diverting over 410,000 items from landfill, become a Fairtrade School, a Water Only School and an Enviroschool. The school has recently won the Aoraki Conservation Award and were finalists for Social Good in the Sustainable Business Network Awards. Kate and student leaders have presented at many local, national and international Sustainability conferences and webinars. Kate’s advocacy and leadership extends beyond the school into the wider community, where she is a trustee of Eco-Action Nursery Trust, enabling volunteers across 26 schools, two retirement homes and two community gardens to grow 60,000 native trees annually providing habitat and food for native species. These plants are helping green the Red Zone. Rangi Ruru grows around 18,000 plants onsite as part of this large-scale collaborative project. Kate has a can-do attitude and is passionate about caring for the environment. She will share learning from this journey and practical steps to care for both people and our planet.
You will have the opportunity to prick out some native seedlings in the nursery while sharing korero about ideas to help take positive action. Kate will talk about Sustainability classes within our Te Ara programme and how ākonga speak of their time taking hands-on action as ‘feeling good by doing good.’ Alongside the native plant nursery is a large vegetable garden and fruit trees where a group of ākonga give their time after school to grow food for women and children in need. A butterfly habitat has also been established onsite to help protect the endemic Boulder Copper.
CONFERENCE
HOSTS:
CONFERENCE HOSTS:
