Arts Prefect, Rita Close, reflects on a successful Arts Soirée, celebrating our students' talents to round off a year in which many opportunities for the arts have been thwarted.

Thank you to Penelope Hare and Georgia Wong, our Chapel Prefects, for this week's Chapel.

The first edition of Columba College's own literature and arts journal was released on the 4th November.

As is traditional, practice (or 'mock') exams have certainly left an impression on us.

Columba rowers packed up and drove to Twizel last Friday night for the first regatta of the season - Aoraki 2021. Races are held over 1000m (instead of the usual 2000m) so it was a great place for our beginner rowers to have their first race.

Expect Senior School reports in your inbox Monday next week.

As you will be aware the government has recently issued a public health order, which covers the education sector, related to testing and vaccination.

On Monday, our 2021 STEM Blues recipients had the opportunity to meet Dame Juliet Gerrard, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, to have a chat about the new Blues initiative and the career pathways available for women in STEM.

Congratulations to all the Columba girls who had work on display at the Celebrate Secondary School Design competition. Another year of design work at an extraordinarily high standard.

Congratulations to Maia Robertson, who has now been awarded this prestigious award for the second year running.

As part of the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme, we are learning to look after ourselves and others. We were challenged to look after an egg for a week.

After a year of many challenges the Columba College Young Enterprise team earned a place in the Otago semi finals.

Be sure to order one of our new vacuum insulated stainless steel drink bottles in either navy or orange - only $22!

We have raised concerns with the contractors on the building site of our new hostel about the speed of trucks on Oban Street and the timing of their deliveries.

The semis and finals of the Dunedin Schools Debating Competition for 2021 were held at St Hilda's last Wednesday and Columba College came away with incredible results.

The Year 1 and 2 class have enjoyed learning skills on the Junior School Chromebooks.

The Year 5 class used the Ozobots to go bowling in digitech this week.

Every year, it always seems a bit of a shock when we near end-of-year examinations for our Middle and Senior schools. For some of us, this time can be very jarring to our Hauora.

The Otago Chinese Prize-giving was due to be held last week at Columba College. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 Alert Level 2 restrictions, this event was cancelled.

This term the year 6 class has been experimenting with the Sphero robots and how they work. Today we were able to find the perimeter of a shape using these amazing robots.

We had a great time running Student Council this year with Kennedy Dailey (Middle School Prefect) and Caitlin O’Brien (Citizenship Prefect), creating a safe forum for students to come together to share their concerns and organise fundraisers. It was a valuable opportunity to learn students’ opinions of operations around the school and the changes they thought would be beneficial.

On Thursday 28 October Columba College held their annual Sports Awards in an extensively modified fashion. However, the students took it all in their stride, cheering and celebrating as their classmates crossed the stage.

Rising golf players... we have an opportunity for you!

Our second survey for the year opens November 8th.

From 28 November 2021, it will be illegal to smoke or vape in a vehicle that has people under 18-years-old in it (whether the vehicle is moving or not).