The new Ministers are popping up in places where their predecessors have not appeared for many years. First it was the Minister of Sport at the opening of the Schools and Adult Hockey Leagues, a fortnight ago, and then on the following Wednesday the students of Bishop Anstey High School gave the Minister of Education, Senator Hazel Manning, a rousing welcome at the annual celebration of St Hilary's Day. The day 81 years ago on which Bishop Arthur Henry Anstey founded The Bishop Anstey High School for Girls with a student body of 48 girls.
At the end of a Thanksgiving Service conducted for the first time by Bishop Calvin Bess, and presentation of the plans for the new Anstey House Building by Judy Chang, Chair of the Board of Management, using a spade with handle draped in the school's colours of red and black Minister Manning turned the sod for the 'resurrection' of Anstey House, which was over 100 years old when it was demolished in the summer of 1998 "with a sense of a loss of tradition" lamented Chang "but the replacement will have some facade to preserve the memory and future generations of Hilarians will have that tradition to follow."
No major renovation, such as the proposals in Vision 2000, has ever been undertaken at BAHS. But the School's facilities need upgrading and there are pressing space restrictions - concerns which must be addressed right now to ensure students have the best. The campaign goal totals twelve million dollars. Nine million has been allocated to the new Environmental Science Block, the only building so far completed and even there a change of plans has seen this building being used for other purposes, such as facilities for sixth formers who will be housed in the new Anstey House being constructed from this budget; construction of a state of the art Technology Centre; and substantial renovations to other existing buildings. The remaining three million is allocated to Institutional Strengthening, which will include scholarships and bursaries to extend the benefits of Bishop Anstey's education to students who may not be financially able, and other in-house and community benefits.
Promises by previous governments to meet two thirds of the twelve million dollars needed to complete the upgrading of the school but have been extremely slow in materialising, were once again made by the new Minister, who said that "the Ministry of Education has approved the two third equivalent to match that which has been raised by the school." Fingers remain crossed that this promise will be fulfilled so that the school will continue to produce "women of worth" as the students of BAHS were first called by a former principal, the late Christina Sutherland.