It has been another busy week in the life of the school. One of the highlights has been the achievement of a number of individual students who have shown how motivated they are to take up opportunities presented to them. These include Maita Mackenzie in Year 13 and Renata Herrera Rojas in Year 12 who successfully applied to attend the New Zealand Model United Nations. During the July holidays Renata also entered the 2020 Girl Boss Edge Justice competition and won first place in the Ministry of Education section. Last weekend Ruby Stretch-Treweek gained 2nd place in the National Chinese Junior Speech Competition and this Sunday Jomana Moharram will receive six prizes at the Otago Science Fair.

Yesterday we had our annual Sports and Cultural photographs taken and this is always a reminder of the huge range of activities available at the school and also how committed a large number of our students are to multiple activities.

With sport now up and running again it is particularly pleasing to see our Year 9 students making the most of all the opportunities available to them. This was particularly visible on Wednesday when the Rugby First XV played against a combined schools’ opposition. This team had six Year 9 students many of whom debuted this week. They showed amazing tenacity and enthusiasm in taking on many students much older and bigger in stature than they were. Well done to the whole team for the way they worked so cohesively across all year levels and for your well-deserved 50 to 48 win.

We have also had the Senior Parent-Teacher interviews this week and thank you to all the parents and caregivers who took up this opportunity. Senior reports will be published on Tuesday 18 August.

Good luck to students taking part in the Year 13 Cross Country Ski trip next week. The weather forecast is looking favourable for a great week.

I would like to remind all school families that enrolments for Year 9 students for 2021 close at 4pm next Thursday 13 August. Please remind anyone you know that is intending to apply for a Year 9 place at the school for next year.