Welcome back to East Otago High School for Term Three 2021.

It has been great having our students back at school and settling quickly into their studies.

This term we welcome our new HOD of English, Brian Strang. Brian is an experienced teacher with a varied working career teaching domestically and abroad. We are extremely lucky to have such a skilled practitioner on our staff.

At the start of week four we will be welcoming a new Assistant Principal to our school, Ian Adamson. Ian will be joining our staff with a great deal of experience from Kavanagh College. He is excited and enthusiastic about the direction of the school and the value that he can add.

We are currently in the middle of the Olympic games, and these have not disappointed for us as New Zealanders. It has been amazing to see how well our athletes have been competing on the world stage. There is plenty that our students can take from all of the performances we have seen thus far.

One of the greatest stories from the Olympics for me is Emma Twigs gold medal. This is Emma's fourth Olympics with her career at this event starting in Beijing in 2008 where she placed 9th. In 2012 at the London games she placed fourth and four years later 4th at Rio De Janeiro. At this point Emma retired from rowing to take up a position at the International Olympic Committee. Like all champions Emma had an itch to scratch, a sense of unfinished business, an Olympic medal that she had got so close to in 2016. In 2018 she got back into training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and then Covd 19 hit. This was a devastating blow and created doubt for all athletes about whether this event would go ahead. Fortunately the games were postponed for a year allowing Emma to continue her training and ultimately blow the field away in a dominant performance in the single skulls at the Tokyo Olympics.

Emma's story is one of perseverance, resilience in the face of adversity and the power of setting goals and working hard to complete them. Her goal of Olympic gold took 20 years to complete and is a powerful message to us all. Never give up! When we have setbacks get back up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward. Have the self belief that if you put in the work, seek good advice and act on it, that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

Nga mihi nui

Marcus Cooper

Tumuaki

East Otago High School