Interacting with younger persons evokes feelings of amazement at their enterprise, wonder at their ability to absorb new ideas and pride in their achievements while working in challenging situations. NCWNZ Southland Branch has four activities which allow members to revel in these feelings while celebrating the value these young people bring to members’ lives.

Southland Social Science Fair

In the first instance the branch sponsors two prizes in the Southland Social Science Fair. It is open to students from year 5 to year 13, to create exhibits about a wide range of themes. From amongst this year’s 300+ presentations NCW judges had to find ones that featured women’s issues. 

This year’s winner was Yr 9 Tatum Wessel whose topic was Women in NZ Police. The presentation and research involved was outstanding. Tatum was the guest speaker at the Branch’s July meeting.

Teenage Parents

Way back in 2009 the Branch was involved, with others, in lobbying Government to develop a school for teenage parents, by writing letters and meeting with relevant Ministers when they visited Invercargill. Success happened in 2011 with the opening of MYPLC (Murikihu Young Parents Learning Centre aka My Place). The Branch retained its interest by attending graduation days and donating gifts of cosmetics on Mother’s Day to each of the parents. The Branch meetings were held there up until the onset of Covid. This year our donation will go up a notch, with the sponsorship of a Kaitiaki/leadership prize of $500 to a student chosen by the staff.

Suffrage Breakfast

Each of the local secondary schools is invited to send two students as guests to our traditional Suffrage Day breakfast where they hear a local inspiring woman speaker. The students always enjoy this event. Last year all the attendees were also invited to test their knowledge through the quiz about NZ suffrage history, that was available from NCWNZ website. Feedback revealed that the MYPLC girls insisted that all their students and the staff must take that quiz and they did! This year they were given a quiz entitled "It is all in the numbers." The quiz papers are put on the breakfast tables and prove to be good conversation starters.

Future NCWNZ Members

After some negotiating with an enthusiastic teacher, the Branch is developing a relationship with one of those secondary schools. It involves two branch members visiting the school for one lunchtime per term to raise issues with them. It is a small focus group of around six senior girls of diverse experiences, and a teacher, who all willingly participate in the discussions.

The first term we discussed the Crimes, Harassment and Stalking Amendment Bill. The second was based on one of the survey papers from Gender Equality NZ. The third began with NCWNZ Resolution 1.6.3.2 (from 1898): "That it is absolutely essential for a Christian state to keep its orphaned and neglected children beyond the age of fourteen, and to prepare such children for the work that seems most suited for each." While this is a ‘retired’ resolution, the discussion centred on the social climate at the time then led to the current situations.

For term four, the moot was Australia has approved social media ban on under-16s. Should NZ follow suit? A lively discussion ensued. In summary, the girls understood both sides of the question but overall tended to agree that NZ should follow suit, with the caveat that education was still crucial to such a law being successful.

At the end of each session there is a simple evaluation form to fill in. The comments have all been positive about the activity and the topics so far, as demonstrated by the evaluation forms from term four:

A. I really enjoyed today’s topic because it was a topic I understood and could discuss B. Today was a massive thought provoking topic which I quite enjoyed
C. I was really impressed by today’s meeting because it was really great to give input into a topic and hear other’s perspectives on social media and the pros and cons of it.
D. I really enjoyed today. I felt as if my thoughts were validated and I was challenged.
E. I think it is a very important topic that needs to be discussed more often
F. No comments but ticked the positive boxes on the evaluation form.

Overall, there was great engagement by the girls and the teacher. They want the programme to happen again next year and are happy for NCW to tell other schools about how much they enjoyed the challenge each term.

Photo shows 2025 Focus group from Southland Girls’ High School with NCWNZ Southland Branch Secretary Margaret Cook.

To read more articles from The Circular (September-October 2025) issue 654, click on the tag below.