19th March
The Otago Southland Secondary Schools Athletics took place in Invercargill last Saturday. Our athletes performed well in the worst conditions I have ever seen for a summer Athletics meeting. Performances of note came from Andrew Whyte in winning the Senior Boys 400m, Sam Hollows winning the Under 15 Girls 1500m (she also scored a second in the 800m), Caitlin Gouman placing second in the Under 14 Girls Long Jump and John Aleni who threw well to come second in the Senior Boys Shotput, The whole team deserves a medal for persistence, driving in near horizontal rain. Good luck to those who now go forward to the South Island event which takes place in Dunedin this weekend.
This week I have taken issue with a number of students for their poor behavior towards staff and students. Our number one school value is respect. I expect that we will all treat each other in a fair and respectful manner. Bullying and verbally abusive behaviours have no place in our school and will not be tolerated. Fortunately the vast majority of students get this right 100% of the time.
Parent teacher interviews take place the week after next. By then you will have received the first report. I am hoping for a great turnout. I am asking that all parents with internet access do the booking for interviews on-line. The instructions were in last week’s newsletter. Bookings will be open as of Tuesday 23rd March. There are instructions on our website www.sohs.school.nz if you need a little help. We will also take telephone bookings if you do not have access to the Internet. Please note that having an interview appointment is essential as many teachers will be fully booked.
On Wednesday our Year 11 students travelled to Dunedin for the annual Drive to Survive Expo. We consider this to be an important part of our Year 11 Health programme. My thanks to parents for their cooperation with us as we got this trip organized at short notice. We are very conscious of the costs that these trips place on families. This trip was heavily subsidized by a number of organizations and would not have gone ahead without their support. This enabled the cost to be reduced to a very reasonable $5.
Our school mixed tennis team came 3rd in the South Island. This is a great achievement. Congratulations to Ayden Edwards, Ryan Eggers, Millie Shaw and Emma Stark. They will now represent us at the national competition which takes place in Christchurch next week. They will be joined by Caelib Edwards and Rebecca Stark who are the reserves. Once again, we have enjoyed strong parental support from the team members’ families.
Have a good week and enjoy the long weekend.
Nick Simpson
Principal