Kia ora koutou

This week we congratulate our top performing academic students and it is appropriate to also congratulate our top-performing athlete, Catherine Lund, who is our Ako (or Academic) Prefect on her amazing 6km cross-country race in Bathurst Australia last Saturday evening where she came an astounding 27th place in the Womens’ U20 World Cross-country race.

Academic success and Sporting or Cultural success are not separate stand-alone things. When we are busy with sport, service, leadership or cultural activities we are inspired, enthusiastic and passionate. This in turn leads us to be streamlined, organised and motivated in the rest of our life. The life experience we gain, the people we work with and the skills that we gain and practise in co-curricular activities make us more disciplined and focused in class and there is truth in ‘healthy body, healthy mind’. We are alert, forward-thinking and goal-oriented.

In celebrating our top academic achievers today, it is not all about them. It is not just about high marks, Scholarships and excellences. It is about the love of learning. Learning and the knowledge gained from learning allows us to advance to greater awareness, advancement of ideas and increased curiosity about the world. Great learning, in the end, results in great research - and advances the fields of what we know and can do as a human race. Otago Girls’ High School has a long list of academic alumni - people who are still out in the world advancing research and knowledge in multiple fields - advancing Women in Science, Women in the Arts, Women in Mathematics and Women in the Languages and Humanities.

In class, being with smart people helps our own learning and maybe helps us recognise that we are smart too. Being smart is a mindset and a curiosity about the world around you, embracing maths as a way of thinking and viewing the world around you, recognising that poetry is as important as scientific formula, understanding that there are multiple perspectives in everything we do.

I encourage students to embrace and celebrate the learning every day. Education gives you choices in life. In Ms Speight’s words - A man isn’t a financial plan - but a good education is. Well-educated women will always be independent and free. We are at school five years and working for 40. Students should set themselves up with the best education they can and take every educational opportunity here to squeeze every out every chance of success.

Then, like Catherine Lund, they should train - setting up the daily habits and practice - keep the repetition going, do something every day - to ensure their success. An important aspect to this is dispensing of, or regulating, distractions such as social media, alcohol and other drugs, poor food choices, absences from class and anything that takes away the opportunity to learn.

Dr Xaviour Walker, Pacific Dean at the Otago Medical School, spoke at the recent Moana Fono and gave advice to dream big and then write down a plan for how to get there. He advocated writing in a journal as a way to process these steps and reflect. Best wishes to all students at all levels for their learning this year.

Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro, nona te ngahere. Heoi, ko te manu e kai ana i te ako, nona te ao

The bird that consumes the miro berry, owns the forest. However, the bird that consumes learning, owns the world.

Ngā mihi nui