The girl allegedly received text messages from one tormenter's parents, who did not want the girl to get her mother involved.

The girl's mother is desperately trying to enrol her in another school - a process that can take about a month.

The girl cannot sit her National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 1 exams unless she is enrolled in a school.

She hopes to start a hairdressing or tourism course next year.

Trouble began when she started at Catholic Cathedral College towards the end of last year.

She initially became friends with a group of girls in her class. They turned on her about six months ago.

They would hit her, throw wet toilet paper at her and write nasty messages on Facebook, she said.

A friend, who has since left Christchurch, was "punched in the face in the car park at school" by the same bullies.

Catholic Cathedral College students Thoren Fidow-Kele, 16, and brother Jiordan, 15, have been named in the New Zealand residents' age-group rugby league squads in only their second seasons in the sport.

The February 22 and June 13 earthquakes had caused widespread liquefaction at Marian College's Shirley site and the 430 pupils and 55 staff have been sharing the St Bede's College site since May. But according to the chairman of the Board of Trustess, Gerard Duignan, the move was unavoidable because the Education Ministry had said schools could not have split-shift days next year.

Duignan said most of the school's buildings could be repaired, but geotechnical engineers had advised that repairs be deferred for at least a year because of the risk of further quakes. He hoped the school would eventually return to the site it had occupied since 1982.

Moving to the Catholic Cathedral site:

• Allows the Marian College students to return to a "normal" (8.30am - 3.00pm) school day.
• Provides the possibility for senior classes at Marian College and Catholic Cathedral College to be timetabled together …as was previously the case with Marian College and Shirley Boys' High School.
• Affords the Marian College students the possibility to access Catholic Cathedral College's specialist science, art and technology facilities.

Source

• The Press
• Catholic Diocese of Christchurch
• Image: Rebuild Christchurch

Work to remove the top of the main dome of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament is continuing, while the unstable rear section of the building is expected to be deconstructed by September 16.

Cathedral management board chairman Lance Ryan said the work would allow neighbouring Catholic Cathedral College to regain full use of its buildings.

Source:

• The Press
• Image: The Press