Nau mai haere mai!

Welcome back to school for 2022. This year we are happy to have 34 Year 7 students, one Year 8 student, three Year 9 students, two Year 10 students, and one Year 11 student that are brand new to our school. These students were welcomed to the school in a slightly different Mihi Whakatau to fit in with the CPF Red settings.

While it has been a different start to the year with the CPF Red framework. The staff at EOHS are making sure that our students and their families are informed and reassured that life at school is as safe as it can be. We will endeavour to make this as close to normal as possible with small alterations to normal operating procedures. The big change for us has been the mandatory mask wearing of students indoors. It has been amazing to see our staff and students embracing this new normality with very little fuss. It is important that we all do our part to support the public health system in slowing the spread of this virus as much as we can for our loved ones.

This year we start with a new junior uniform which has offered a more functional, modern version for our students which looks fantastic (see the attached picture). Thank you for your patience and understanding as the uniform supplier sends out stock as it becomes available.

A welcome addition to school life this year has been the ‘Healthy School Lunches’ (Ka ora, Ka ako) initiative with the Ministry of Education funding lunches and snacks for all students. These lunches have been prepared and delivered by Kaan’s Catering who do an amazing job to create nutritious, delicious food at the quantities needed. As a parent of a student at East Otago High School I can assure you that these lunches are being enjoyed by our students and appreciated by our parents. Students that are well nourished will make the most of the learning opportunities provided in and outside of the classroom.

The next couple of weeks will see our annual start of year camps operating. Year 7 will be visiting Camp Iona in Herbert. Year 8 students will be staying in Oamaru and participating in activities in the Waitaki district. Year 9 will be making the annual pilgrimage to our lodge in Glenorchy. It is great that we can still run these important events for our students in the current CPF Red setting.

The staff at East Otago High School welcome all new students and their families into our community and will be doing all we can to make their start the best it can be.  

Nga mihi nui

Marcus Cooper

Principal

East Otago High School