Nau mai haere mai! Welcome back to Term 2.

It's great to be back at school for Term 2 and hear about the wonderful things our students got up to in their holidays. Term 2 has started really positively with great weather, excellent engagement from the students culminating in a well run Cross-Country event on Friday. A big thank you to Emma Mitchell and Abigail Paton for their organisation and execution of a well planned event.

We are hopeful that this term will see less disruption for our teaching and learning programmes as we learn to live with Covid 19. There will still be times that students and staff will be off school isolating so it is really important to keep up with your studies and ensure that you are prepared to work from home. We can lend out a limited amount of school chromebooks to students if needed so please contact the school if this is the case and we will deliver one to your house.

Term 2 is quite often referred to the power term for our senior students. The term where we see real traction and movement in their NCEA qualifications. Year 12 students will be participating in a First Aid course on Friday the 13th of May on the Teacher only day. 

Next week is Bullying Free week across New Zealand. We will be running classes, discussions and activities throughout the week to highlight the harm that can be caused by bullying but also how we as individuals and a community can ensure that we support students that are being bullied and create an inclusive environment where all students feel safe and valued. We will be running a Pink Shirt day next Friday to support this week and celebrate the inclusive nature of a small rural school.

A couple of highlights that the students will be looking forward to in the coming weeks are the Youth film event on Thursday the 19th of May (the last time we participated in this we took out the top honours in the Waitaki District), the Tokomairiro exchange on the Tuesday the 24th of May and the Junior Social on the 3rd of June (Disco Theme).

Our Sports Academy is taking shape with a planned trip to the Otago Polytechnic on Friday the 20th May. Students will be participating in a functional movement screen and an inbody screen. This will expose the students to a higher level of thinking about physical activity and provide guidance around training programmes useful for their chosen sports.

Lastly a reminder about our TOD on Friday the 13th of May. These days are mandated by the Ministry of Education for teachers to unpack the changes to the standards at NCEA and the Literacy and Numeracy requirements coming into affect in 2023. We apologise for any inconvenmience this may cause families.

Nga mihi nui!

Marcus Cooper

Principal

East Otago High School