Nau mai haere mai!

Last week our Year 7 and 8 students participated in their respective camps.

The Year 7 students had the traditional Camp Iona experience while the Year 8 students explored the attractions of Oamaru. Both camps were blessed with amazing weather with plenty of swimming, abseiling, rock climbing, archery, search and rescue, penguin watching and a host of other cool activities. The core goals of these camps is to allow the students to strengthen the relationships between the students, students and teachers while providing challenges where students are taken out of their comfort zone to promote personal growth. Our Year 13 Peer Support leaders travelled out to Camp Iona to work with the Year 7 students to further develop their Tuakana Teina relationship (older students helping younger students). A huge thank you must go to all the staff and parents that gave up their time to ensure that these opportunities can happen. The parents that have had to take time off work have sacrificed a lot but I assure you it was well worth is for the amount of personal development achieved. It was great receiving an email form the 'Top Ten Holiday Park' in Oamaru outlining how awesome our kids were when they visited.

Monday we had our annual Athletics sports. It was unfortunate that we had to run the event without spectators due to Covid. This did not however dampen the spirits of the students that took part with great enthusiasm and engagement. Well done to Fipe Maire who broke two school records in the Shot Put and Discus.

We had our first confirmed case in the school community this week on Tuesday. We quickly worked through the students that were classified as close contacts as per the criteria from the Ministry of Health and Education. Thank you to the  students that were close contacts and their families for how understanding, calm and quickly that they were isolated and got a Covid test. It is pleasing to see that our health measures of high vaccination rates, mask wearing, distancing and hygiene practices are working. None of the students that were close contacts have tested positive with students returning to school on Friday or Monday.

While this is a very unsettling time with confirmed cases expected to exponentially rise in all communities this is not a time to panic. It is safe to send your students to school we are working closely with the Ministry of Health and Education to ensure we are managing new confirmed cases carefully. It is important for students to have continuity in their education, social connection with their peers, and the regular routine of school life. To constantly dwell in the often negative world of Covid is not good for anyone's mental health. We will be attempting to run as many of our school events as we can under the guidelines given to us by the Ministry of Health and Education. We are very close to the point where we will have to get used to living with this Covid variant in our community and will see the easing of restrictions in the coming weeks and months. We will keep you informed as changes occur.

Nga mihi nui

Marcus Cooper

Principal 

East Otago High School