Honour for Columba head

Elizabeth Wilson
Elizabeth Wilson
One of New Zealand's longest-serving school principals has become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education.

For 30 years, Columba College principal Elizabeth Wilson has maintained a devotion to excellence in education for primary, secondary, boarding and international pupils at the Dunedin school, and was both surprised and humbled by the Queen's Birthday Honour.

"I was completely taken aback - it was so unexpected.

"I find it all very humbling," she said.

Since Miss Wilson was appointed principal in 1980, the roll has trebled, the campus has doubled in size, and the school has undertaken major building and renovation projects to provide better educational, sporting and boarding facilities for the pupils.

Miss Wilson has been committed to encouraging the attendance of international pupils, and the school has been at the forefront of enrolling pupils from the Asia-Pacific rim since the 1980s.

Miss Wilson has established sister-school links in Shanghai, Tokyo and Australia, and introduced Chinese language to the school's curriculum in 2007.

Under her guidance, Columba College has become one of New Zealand's top performing academic schools in the national examination system, and pupils have gained many academic distinctions.

"I see this award as an honour for Columba College, not for myself," Miss Wilson said.

"Anything that I may have been able to achieve has been because of Columba College, and it has been done for Columba College and its students."

 

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