Arts News Term 1, Week 3 2026

Make your moments matter

An interview with Jess Erasmus, Head of Arts 2026

You were appointed Head of Arts this year. What does it mean to you?
I was very excited as it was a role that I’d dreamt of for a while. I love everything about the Arts - especially the range of styles on offer, the many opportunities, and I’m in a fortunate position to encourage people to get involved. I love seeing everyone shine and not just arts students.

What does the role entail?
My main goal is to empower people to perform and make their moments matter!

I need to be an approachable person within the arts that people can come to for support. Getting up and performing is hard and makes you vulnerable, so showing up and supporting each other is important. 

I have to run meetings, provide content for the newsletter, update the noticeboard, organise events, assist prefects with anything artsy, run the Instagram page, sort advertising for events, and give insight into what goes on in the arts. I work with other members of the Council assigning jobs for productions if people aren’t performing, such as helping backstage, Front Of House, hair and makeup…

What arts activities were you involved in last year?
Shakespeare 15 min scene for the Shakespeare Fest Sheilah Winn, chamber choir, combined choir, Ashgirl production, A Cappella choir, Snr pop choir, jazz band, arts council, and large events such as Big Sing ,Southern Jam and Rockquest as a soloist.

I take singing lessons outside of school.

Tell us what you hope to achieve with the Senior Arts Council this year.
I want to create a positive environment - where people can speak up and contribute confidently, which makes people feel good about themselves and proud to be part of the arts council.

I want to make it rewarding for everyone.
We want to have lots of cool events that people can look forward to. I want to advertise more - showcasing the arts through Insta SMC arts, speaking at assemblies…

What are you personally aiming to achieve within this role?
I want to grow my leadership skills and for the role to push me. I want to know what my strengths and weaknesses are and strive to be the best version of myself.

What excites you most about the Arts?
I love the friendships you make. They are very special, with like-minded people sharing the same experiences.

I like giving people an opportunity to shine - the arts provide something for everyone - it’s not just being onstage in shows - there are lots of different aspects to the arts.

Have you been involved in anything exciting recently?
I was invited to sing at the Nostalgia festival this year. I really enjoyed performing, but also watching other SMC girls perform too. It was a great opportunity to sing on the Future Nostalgia stage, a platform for young artists.

What does the future hold for you in the arts?
I’m performing the role of Fantine in the production of Les Misérables, and I’m very excited to be part of that.

I’m releasing original songs very soon - a 4-song E.P at the beginning of March - watch this space!

Good luck for the rest of the year, Jess. It sounds like you and the Senior Arts Council are going to be busy. As Jess says, watch this space!

MUSIC

The Spoons - If you are looking for something to listen to on a wet drive home, give The Spoons new single a blast in the car. The girls and Steve Fowler, Music & Audio Technician, were busy over the summer months recording and mixing this new number. We’re all very impressed with the results!

https://open.spotify.com/track/22gKrbNLMTSBYI61dX7qxn?si=35055dbbb1d049a3

DRAMA

New photoboards of the Ash Girl and A Story of Rona, last year’s productions, are proudly now in position along the Performing Arts corridor. Are you featured?

SENIOR PRODUCTION

Rehearsals are underway for this mammoth joint production with Christ’s College. Congratulations to the following students who have been cast in lead roles of this double cast.

PASIFIKA GROUP

Savena Fagalima, SMC’s 2026 Bicultural Prefect - I am thrilled to announce a new initiative: our first-ever combined Polyfest group with Christ’s College!

What is Polyfest? Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Polyfest is the South Island’s largest festival celebrating Pasifika cultures. This year, it expands to a two-day event, showcasing the number of schools striving to represent their diverse cultures and truly make their moments matter.

Why is this a milestone? This marks the first ever time that St Margaret’s College and Christ’s College have participated in the SPACPAC Polyfest. As a combined group, we are honoured to represent our schools in a way that has never been done before, laying a foundation for cultural diversity that we hope will grow for years to come.

The Performance Our passionate group of 24 students is led by me and Christ’s College Bicultural Prefect, Lui Tupuola, alongside our expert tutors: Albany, Ruthie, Isabella, Kenora, and Asolelei. Our tutors have created and taught these three Samoan dances for us to perform:

Siva Samoa (Girls)

Fa'ataupati (Boys)

Sāsā (Combined Group)

So Save the Date! Polyfest takes place on the 13th and 14th of March in Hagley Park North. We will confirm our specific performance time slot as soon as we know.

Fa’afetai Lava, and we hope you see you supporting our girls at the weekend of Polyfest!

VISUAL ART

Ever wondered how students know where they’re supposed to be at lunchbreaks? 

The Art department has been creative and devised signage for wet-weather breaks.

Not only is it fun and creative, but it’s also educational!

DEBATING

Lena Abdinor, Head of debating for 2026 - I’ve been debating at St Margaret’s since year nine as a first speaker, and I’m so excited to take on this role. My job is to be the support system for SMC debating - teaching our debaters everything they need to know, practicing our skills, and organising everyone. Running our weekly debating club is one of my main tasks. We learn the fundamentals of debating, practice some mock debates, and play lots of games during these sessions.

It’s been amazing to see such a high turnout this year! Around 100 girls are involved in debating for 2026, with many girls returning from last year. We hold debating club on Wednesdays, and at our first meeting last week we introduced what debating is at SMC, some information for our new debaters, and played some games to get our arguing and rebuttal skills flowing. At the moment, we are working on organising all 100 girls into teams, ready to start debating in our CDSC inter-school debating tournament. 

We are looking forward to our first competition of the year, the first senior round on the 26th of February, which will be held at STAC.

SENIOR ARTS COUNCIL

2026 is off to an amazing start for our Arts Community. Co-curriculars sign ups were stunningly successful with record numbers across many of our groups. SMC’s bicultural community has welcomed the challenge of performing in the Canterbury Polyfest for the first time, which we will surely take on in stride.

Our Arts Council for 2026 had our first whole council meeting last Thursday where we discussed our goals and expectations for the year. We aim to work together as a team, developing our preexisting SMC Arts events and taking them to a higher standard of both execution and participation. On the note of Polyfest, we hope to incorporate our bicultural element into our events to celebrate our Māori history and the unique culture that it is.

Moreover, we value the opinions of our little sisters and their input on the arts. We aim to include our Middle School Arts Committee in some of our meetings in the coming year and to hear their opinions on the arts and any amazing ideas they have on what we can do to support it.

Our expectations of each other as Arts Council members are to show up, be reliable, encouraging and be involved in areas of the arts other than what we personally are most interested in. It is an important element of community that we are there for one another and as the Arts Council, we aim to further our strong ties of support and ignite an interest and appreciation in the arts for everyone.

With the upcoming Sheilah Winn Shakespeare in Schools Festival Ōtautahi, where we will be supporting our sisters in our very own Charles Luney Auditorium, we will be delegating responsibilities and promoting the event. Furthermore, we again have the honour of hosting another significant event in our CLA with a film screening next month - details coming soon.

In promoting these spectacular events, we hope to grow our community and strengthen its bonds and success. The Arts Council is delighted to be privileged with the responsibilities of fostering our 2026 Arts Community.

Julia McCarthy, Deputy Head - The Arts Council.

MIDDLE SCHOOL ARTS COMMITTEE

Thank you to everyone who applied to be part of the Middle School Arts Committee. Applications have now closed, and interviews will take place soon to select the Committee. Students selected for an interview will be notified shortly.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Sophia Yang, Yr 11, has recently passed her Grade 8 oboe exam with Distinction. Congratulations Sophia. Excellent news! We look forward to hearing you perform with the orchestra at the forthcoming Orchestral Extravaganza.

OPPORTUNITIES

National Concerto Competition

Catch New Zealand's top young instrumentalists in concert with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Judd at the National Concerto Competition next month. 

The competition is open to musicians 25 years and under and the Final will present a showcase of young Kiwi talent. With performers already making waves nationally and internationally, this is a rare chance to hear the next generation of world-class soloists in full flight.  The evening will be capped off with piano duet performances by Michael Houston and Sarah Watkins, while the adjudicators consider the awarding of prizes.

Who will win the career-launching $10,000 first prize? The very talented school students or the University student, all at different stages of their musical journeys:

15 year old Hayden Chiu - "Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22" - Henryk Wieniawski

14 year old  Ryan Yeh - "Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello" - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

21 year old Lorna Zhang - "Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77" - Dmitri Shostakovich

Tickets for the 58th Competition Final are now available to school students and their families and offered at $5 plus booking fee only. Special seats have also been reserved for students, to enable a great view of the action at the front of the stalls.

The Final takes place on Saturday 7th March 2026, 7.00 p.m. in the Douglas Lilburn Auditorium, Christchurch Town Hall.

Please book using the following link

https://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/event/2400643BA64E1F03?did=student

Come and support our young musicians of the future!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

Polyfest - 13/14 Mar

Shakespeare Showcase - 21 Mar

Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival - 28 Mar

Twilight Concert - 31 Mar

Orchestral Extravaganza - 29 Apr

Les Misérables production - 12-16 May