Welcome to the first day of our highly anticipated Sacred Heart & Redwood Historic Reunion! We’re excited to kick off this memorable weekend filled with nostalgia, laughter, and cherished reunions.
Please join us at the Granary, Founders Park, Nelson, to commence our festivities. Here’s what you can look forward to today:
Event Details:
Scheduled Highlights:
Be sure to arrive promptly to catch up with old friends, make new friend connections, and immerse yourself in the vibrant atmosphere of our reunion.
Let’s make unforgettable memories together as we celebrate the legacy of Sacred Heart & Redwood.
We look forward to seeing you there!
As we continue our Sacred Heart & Redwood Historic Reunion, we invite you to enjoy a leisurely morning exploring the sights, sounds, and tastes of Nelson Markets or take the bus ride to the iconic Mapua Warf. Spend quality time with your friends and families, soaking in the vibrant atmosphere of your hometown Nelson.
There is always plenty to do in Sunny Nelson:
Nelson Markets: Explore and savour the delights of Nelson’s local produce, crafts, and more.
Mapua Wharf: Experience the charm of Mapua with its scenic vistas and culinary delights.
Or just rest up at home as is a big afternoon and evening ahead.
After your morning, we reconvene at the Granary, Founders Park, Nelson, at 2:00 pm for an afternoon filled with meaningful activities:
Afternoon Programme:
2:00 pm: All attendees gather at the Granary for:
Couch Stories and Remembrance Time
Historic Convent and College presentation
Past Teachers and Pupils sharing their stories
Afternoon Tea
Evening Celebration:
6:00 pm: Join us for a celebratory Reunion dinner at the Tides Hotel Bar & Eatery (formerly known as Trailways Hotel), located at 66 Trafalgar Street, Nelson.
Further details regarding our special Reunion Dinner and Function will be updated and emailed to all registered past pupils.
We look forward to reconnecting, reminiscing, and creating new memories together throughout the day and evening. If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to us SHReunion@gmail.com
A Dedication Mass for all reunion attendees, friends, and families will be held at 12:30 p.m.
Following the Mass, we invite you to lunch at St. Mary’s Hall, Manuka Street, for an afternoon of conversation, laughter, and shared memories. Please note that for non-registered adults $15.00 is requested for lunch costs.
The Reunion will finish after lunch, and we bid each other farewell, cherishing the time spent together.
Before you depart, please take the opportunity to stroll around the grounds of the old Convent site and St. Joseph’s school, and enjoy reflecting on its history.
Guided Archive Room visits will also be arranged.
Imagine being a fourth former and thinking you have all the confidence in the world because you are no longer a Third former or a newbie and also don’t have the stress of being a fifth former with School Certificate to worry about and then your mother gets summonsed to the school to be told her daughter is boy crazy!! Thanks, Sister Celine!!!!
"Boy Crazy"!
On a warm day our Science Teacher had scheduled her lesson on chemical reactions, or specifically why Phosphorus is stored in water – it ignites when exposed to oxygen. We did have in our scantily resourced Lab a Fume Cupboard. She exposed a piece of phosphorous to the air and shut the cupboard door – we then had a second unscheduled lesson. The poisonous fumes escaping through the vents at the back of the cupboard were sucked back into the classroom through the open window next to it – warm air flows toward cold air! We evacuated the Lab, lesson cut short – yippee.
Science Lesson – Phosphorus Fumes & Evacuation!
Starting in 1971, our year was one of the first to be at Redwood College right through, rather than at Sacred Heart or a little of both. We did feel so very grown up when we arrived on our first day in our new red uniforms and panama hats. No gloves by the time we started but our hats were legendary. I’m sure everyone from my year will remember how perfect Anne W’s hat remained right throughout our years at college. Everyone else’s looked pretty battered in next to no time but Anne’s remained pristine from start to finish.
New Red Uniform & Panama Hats!
I enjoyed the special occasions when the nuns would take us around to Our Lady’s Grotto and we would help tidy the area and plant new flowers. The Grotto was my favourite place to visit. Other special memories were our sunbathing on the far end of the back fields, chatting about our fun and happy lives – and most likely chatting about the boys walking past on their way to the Boy’s College! Plus of course, sitting on the fire escape outside the common room, and watching the boys walk by!
Our Ladies Grotto, Sun Bathing & Boys
For all those girls who were in Form 3 at Sacred Heart College Nelson in 1955 – here is a true story. Now let’s see how many of you remember this ‘Dastardly Deed’ which is chicken feed compared with what happens at College these days. Cast your minds back to Sister Faith’s class room second floor up, and looking toward the left of the blackboard, where a row of cupboards stood. Now I think it was one of the Boarders who told me that there was a trap door in the cupboard. So one day curiosity overcame our terror, and two or three of us (who were you?)crept upstairs during lunchtime and with one of you as guard at the classroom door, – myself and two others with hearts beating madly, quietly opened the cupboard to find YES the trapdoor was positioned on the floor. We gingerly and carefully lifted it up; our mouths fell open as we leaned forward to view the Sisters at work in the kitchen below. BUT something unexpected happened while I had my mouth open, – a long snake like dribble oozed from my mouth, and to my horror before I could slurp it back, it wound itself slowly down, and dropped fair and square onto one of the Sisters headgear. For several seconds our eyes were transfixed as the last of the dribble descended, and then panic set in; – we hastily closed the trapdoor and cupboard door, and fled. The rest of the class thought we were so brave and brazen. I can still remember this as if it were yesterday. It’s actually 68years ago this year. Diana Clark (nee Inwood)
‘Dastardly Deed’
The giggling excitement and rowdy commotion of Redwood college girls leaning out the first-floor windows announcing the sight to those of us inside is one to remember. Mrs. Maplesden had arrived wearing a TROUSER SUIT. More of us rushed to the old-sash windows to get a look. This was the early ‘70s, but to see a woman teacher in trousers, I actually wondered if ‘the nuns’ would allow it! It had cuffs and pressed lines, burnt orange, the jacket open at the front with a twin set top underneath. But life soon went on as usual, Mrs Maplesden, who seemed above it all, continued having cheerful chats with Sr Celine, occasionally throwing chalk at pupils at the back who were talking rather than listening, and teaching us Geography and English, leaving us all with many fond memories.
Mrs. Maplesden