We’ve had another busy week in the life of Otago Girls’. It has been encouraging to have the hall filled on two evenings this week to recognise students' achievements. On Tuesday evening the annual Sports Awards were held and this was an opportunity to recognise and celebrate our Juniors in Senior A teams, student coaches, referees and umpires, Five Years Participation, as well as the presentation of Outstanding Achievement Awards, Blues and New Zealand Sidey Blues. Congratulations to all of you that received awards.

A special award was presented to Rebecca Dean. This was a one-off award gifted by Ann Babbage to mark her 50 years in teaching and was presented to a student for her commitment to sport. The award was to recognise a student, who, throughout her time at OGHS has participated in a range of sports, displaying commitment, loyalty and fair play. Well done Rebecca!

Our wonderful guest speaker was ex-girl Mhairi-Bronte Duncan who left Otago Girls’ in 2015. She took up curling while she was a pupil at our school and is now a member of the New Zealand Curling Team and is also the New Zealand Under 21 Curling selector and the Curling Development Officer for Dunedin. Mhairi delivered a great speech on all the things she overcame to become a New Zealand representative in curling and this is included in full in this newsletter.

Our Sports Prefects did a great job hosting the event and one of the highlights were their moving speeches acknowledging the support of their families and our Sports Coordinator Ms Colleen Hokianga.

The following night the school hall was the venue for the Otago Language Awards hosted by the University of Canterbury Confuscius Institute. It was great to see a number of students receive recognition for their Chinese Language skills. A large number of our students also performed on stage providing some of the entertainment for the evening.

Individual students also continue to excel in their chosen fields. A huge congratulations to Elizabeth Purvis for her selection into the New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir. She is one of 56 students selected nationally. Female membership of this choir is typically dominated by students and schools that have considerable funds directed towards the development of choral music making. The last OGs student to be selected in this choir was Calla Knudson-Hollebon in 2014. Elizabeth’s achievement is simply outstanding and a testament to her considerable talent and dedication. Congratulations also to Ben Madden, Elizabeth’s classical voice teacher and our Choir Director, for his expert knowledge in the area. Ben was also a member of the NZSSC a number of years ago. There were only three students in the Dunedin area selected for this choir in 2020 and they are all Ben’s pupils.

I would also like to acknowledge our swim team who competed at the National Secondary Schools’ Swimming Championship last weekend. They all performed to a high level in a tough competition. I must make a special mention though of Madison Wills who won a silver and a bronze medal. Our Under 18 Rugby 7’s team also performed admirably at the South Island Rugby 7s Tournament in Timaru gaining 4th place.

We will include all the achievements we have celebrated this year in our annual school magazine which will be distributed on the day of prize-giving - the 8th December. It is timely to remind you to make sure you have paid your $25 for your magazine so your daughter doesn’t miss out on a copy when they are distributed.

I hope you all have a restful Labour Weekend and travel safely if you are heading out of town.