The highlight of the week for me has been the opening of Te Taiwhaka o Kā Moana e Rua - our Classroom by the Sea.

This ceremony was the culmination of years of effort and thanks to the support of many members of our wider school community. Starting with the purchase of the old High Tide Restaurant building at a fraction of its true value and ending with the blessing of the building and our new rowing boats, this project has been a truly collaborative one.

My particular thanks go to Simon Gilmour and Jenny Child who saw the potential in the building and supported us in securing the lease to the land and the purchase, to Matt Caird who designed the renovations and oversaw the rebuild, the previous OGHS Board of Trustees who gave approval and the current Board who have continued to support it. The PTSA helped purchase the whiteware, the rowing parents have done much work around the site and many staff, students and parents helped out with working bees.

The finished facility is one of which we can be very proud and will support the learning of our students now and into the future, as well as providing a base for our rowers, whose performances are going from strength to strength.

My thanks to Kai Tahu for gifting us the name for the building and to Kaumatua Hata Temo who carried out the blessing, with support from Wairua Puhou.

With the announcement that Coronavirus has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, we have begun preparations for being able to deliver programmes online, should the school be ordered to close for any period of time. We have a strong foundation of online delivery should this be required with our BYOD policy and all classes already using google classroom and blended delivery models. In the meantime please continue to follow the advice provided by the Ministry of Health. We will continue to send out updates as the situation changes.

Next Tuesday we will be holding our school swimming sports. This is always a fun event that is compulsory for all Year 9 and 10 students. Please encourage your daughter to participate.