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Miss Dawn Jones

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NameMyrlene Dawn JonesTime at School1975 - 1993AchievementsM.A. (Auckland) Dip. Ed.PositionHeadmistressBiographical InformationHeadmistress from 1975 - 1993

Miss [Myrlene] Dawn Jones was very young when she took on the role of Headmistress here at Diocesan, having previously been a maths teacher. Despite the leaps and bounds made in the post-war period, she still found much of the day-to-day running of the School rather old-fashioned. Particularly the timetable, which allowed staff to have one free afternoon each week and still required most secondary teachers to travel from Form room to Form room, which was fine when most teaching was done from books, but as classwork began to use more and more visual resources, it made much more sense to move the students from room to room.

During Miss Jones’ time, the roll rose considerably, and both the range of subject options as well as the range of sports played at School were significantly expanded. Miss Jones was very involved in NZ Netball and so this sport became a particular favourite here.

During her tenure, a new Science Block, the Patteson block, Junior School, a Sports Centre, a new Swimming pool, the Shrewsbury block for arts and technology, and the new staffroom and professional centre were all developed and completed, beginning the campus development plan that has continued since the 1980s.

One perennial difficulty was the disproportionate time needed to keep order in the School’s Boarding accommodation, and eventually, a decision was made to ‘close the Boarding’, encouraging any students from out of town to find private boarding accommodation. This move proved unpopular amongst a number of Old Girls and former boarders. After much fundraising and canvassing of the School’s alumnæ, Old Girl Doris Innes bought the house across the road from the Sports’ Field on Clyde Street and Innes House, the privately run boarding for Dio girls, was established.

Miss Jones made the difficult decision to resign from her role here in 1993 and went on to help establish the Senior College and remained involved in Netball for many years. The Dawn Jones Sports Centre was named after her to commemorate all she did for the school.

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Miss Jones with students

Miss Jones' Farewell

Staff group photograph

Miss Jones

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Miss Dawn Jones