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3.1.5 School
** What schools did the girls attend?
At the beginning of "Heavenly Creatures," Pauline is in the Third Form
(the first grade of high school) at Christchurch Girls' High School (CGHS), an
academically well-regarded and progressive state school in central Christchurch.
Christchurch residents still refer to it as "Girls' High." Juliet joins CGHS
near the beginning of the Third Form early in the film. We are told by Miss Stewart that
Juliet had been attending St Margaret's [note: Confirmed to be the private Anglican girls'
school in Christchurch, now located just north of Hagley Park. lw,mm. But Juliet Hulme's
attendance in real life has not yet been confirmed. jp]. Prior to that, Juliet had been in
Queenswood in the Hawke's Bay [note: Located on the east coast of the North Island of New
Zealand. See 3.2.4. jp]. And, in real life, she had also been to Ilam School, an
elementary school near the Ilam homestead, though this isn't mentioned in "Heavenly
Creatures." Later, Pauline is removed from CGHS in a critical sequence of events, and
she is enrolled at Digby's Commercial College [note: Confirmed from PYP's diaries, trial
testimony and other sources. jp]. Digby's was a private vocational school where girls
learned shorthand, typing, bookkeeping and other skills necessary for a clerical job. It
is now closed, but it was in the central city, not in Digby Place [note: Digby Place is in
the east end of ChCh. jp]. [lw] Digby's was a secretarial "College" and
certainly much looked down upon.
