Kia ora koutou

I hope you are keeping warm and enjoying the heart of Winter! The school has had a very settled and happy term so far and we are grateful for a range of wonderful and exciting activities that have been driven by the students and others in the school. This week is PRIDE week, celebrating rainbow youth and the inclusion of each and every diverse student in our school community, enriching the fabric of who we are.

Next week we have our very special Matariki assemblies and events, leading up to the Matariki holiday next Friday, 24 June. All Māori students, students of te reo Māori and members of Wairua Pūhou are expected to attend our Mana Wahine Day all day on Wednesday 22 June at Te Tumu - School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies - at the University of Otago. This is an important day for all Māori students in Year 9-13 to look ahead and hear from inspirational speakers about pathways, Scholarships and leadership, as well as building connection and whanaungatanga with each other. Students are to meet with a packed lunch in full school uniform at the main entrance to the Otago Museum at 8.45am and will be released from the university at 3pm. This event only occurs bi-annually and has been instrumental in successful Scholarship and other applications.

On Wednesday evening we have our Matariki Whānau Hui celebration. This is going to be a ‘stellar’ event and we welcome all of our school community to join us for this occasion. Wairua Pūhou will perform and there will be a light kai. It would be helpful if you can rsvp with numbers to admin@otagogirls.school.nz. Tuesday is Library Day with our theme: ‘Looking to the Stars’.

On Thursday at 1.15pm we will have our first Matariki assembly. Because of numbers this will be limited to some invited guests and the students and we are honoured to have our very own staff member and illustrator, Kirsten Parkinson, along with author Kitty Brown, speaking about their wonderful new children’s book, Matariki, at this assembly.

These, along with House Haka coming up, are the first stage in strengthening our identity, culture and whanaungatanga at Otago Girls’ High School. Following on in Term Three will be our Pacific and Multi-ethnic events, focussed particularly on Amnesty’s amazing Cultural Week 8th-12th August. We welcome our school community to take part in events as much as possible so that we can build the connections in our parent community as well.

On that note, we are seeking nominations for our School Board elections in September and are also looking for more members to help support our very supportive PTSA. Please see the articles in this newsletter for more information. A School Board information evening will be held on Monday 4 July in the school hall at 5pm for people considering nomination.

I hope that you and your family remain well and we are continuing to recommend mask use at school until we get through these next few weeks of Winter. We are holding a catchup day for seniors for assessment on Monday 4 July and juniors will be working from home on this day. If you require supervision for students under 14 they are able to be at school working independently from their Google Classroom in the library.

Matariki hunga nui
Matariki of many people

Traditionally, Matariki is a time when food like kūmara are stored in large piles and shared among friends, whānau, and the wider community. This whakataukī speaks about manaakitanga - sharing food and being together with loved ones.