Gail Ives’ memorial assembly and funeral
Thursday 10 September 2026
Information regarding Gail Ives’ memorial assembly and funeralThursday 10 September 10.30am WGC memorial assembly in the covered turf for the whole school, staff, and any parents who would like to come. Gail’s family will be present, as will Gail’s urn. This will be a celebration of the things Gail loved about WGC – a mix of speeches and performances. Gail’s husband will also speak. At the end of the assembly, Gail will leave WGC for the last time, accompanied by her family. Because so many staff will be going to Gail’s funeral, the school will then be dismissed and students will be free to go home. We will provide space for any under-14s to be supervised (please contact wgc@wgc.school.nz if your child will stay at school. Students are likely to have work set for some classes they miss. We will also livestream Gail’s funeral, which will take place at 1pm at St Paul’s Cathedral opposite Parliament. This will be playing in the staffroom and students are welcome to come in and watch it in there.
This is the link to the livestream if students or parents want to watch it: https://www.harbourcityfunerals.co.nz/funerals-tributes/?funeral=e7MQ6
There will be space for some students in the church and a number of Yr 12 & 13 have let us know that they will represent the school. We realise there may be families who wish to attend with younger students and that is absolutely fine, but we’d ask that if the students wear uniform, it is perfect. Please note the Yr 11 Project Science Rocket trip will still go ahead on 10 September for students who wish to attend. |
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Gail has a long association with WGC. She started here in the 3rd form (Yr 9) in 1978 and finished Form 7 (Yr 13) in 1982. The school’s magazine, The Reporter, mentions her every year – a brilliant new bowler in the Ixt XI in Yr 9, with a great future and an interesting style in caps; in 1981 it likened her to the Bionic Woman, trying to jump the width of the pitch after every over. She was a secondary school rep and was in the Wellington Women’s 2nd XI. She also played Hockey (and also rep hockey) and soccer – always in the 1st XI. In her final year at school she was a PE Monitor, a secondary school hockey rep, she coached hockey and cricket and was awarded the Service to School sport award.
She left WGC to go to Phys Ed school at Otago University, then she trained as a teacher in Christchurch before getting a job back at WGC starting in 1988 teaching PE and Science. And here she has stayed, teaching PE, Health & Science and coaching cricket and football to thousands of students over the last 39 years. In many cases, she taught two generations of one family. Her only time away was maternity leave in 1997 when she had Ben and a few trips away.
As Principal, Gail was, in many ways, a dream staff member. She was utterly professional; she worked hard, she always completed things like reports and testimonial comments ahead of time and they were always superb; she adapted to new initiatives, usually with huge energy; she was collegial, supportive, engaged in the wider life of the school and unfailingly positive.
I always feel guilty that Gail was a part-time staff member – and has been for 25 years – as, apart from a late start, she usually spent as many, if not more hours here than many full time teachers. This was her base, she did her exercise from here, she did her work, she did relief, she worked with the beginning teachers in her department, she gave feedback about new ideas from the school and the Ministry of Education.
But Gail’s main attribute was her passion for and knowledge of the students she taught. And that didn’t stop when they left school. We knew she had an amazing memory – but so many of the tributes sent to us after she died have been from former students who all talked about seeing her after they left school and how she remembered their names and what they were doing. It’s a rare skill and it means so much.
Gail remembered and cared for everyone; she fed her students; she was interested in everyone and everything to do with school; she was enormously appreciative of the work people did in the school and she particularly loved Prizegiving when she could celebrate the performances and successes of so many of her students past and present. Gail radiated love for our school and everyone in it.
We miss her dearly and we find it so hard to believe that her amazing trip ended in this horrific way. In due course we will work out how to honour her in a very tangible way. In the meantime, we just want to say thank you for everything she meant to us at WGC.
Moe mai rā Gail
Julia Davidson
Principal