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Linda Miller, Principal
 
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Principal's Report

Ms L. Miller, Principal —

This week we welcomed our head prefect from 2017, Maddy Campbell to our school assembly.

Maddy is currently on holiday from the Eastern Florida State College in the USA where she is on a full Volleyball scholarship. It was great to hear her story of how a girl from the south of a very small country like New Zealand negotiated her way into a ‘full ride’ scholarship at her choice of the 10 colleges that offered her a place last year. Her message to us all was simple; find your passion and work hard. This will mean making sacrifices along the way but the benefits will far outweigh any challenges. Maddy is the same humble but amazing young woman we remember from her time here at OGs and it is wonderful to see her making it in the US College Volleyball scene.

Congratulations to the students who played in the Otago Secondary Schools’ Netball tournament last weekend. Results are included with this newsletter.

This week three of our choirs participated in the New Zealand Choral Federation Otago/South Canterbury Big Sing 2019 Competition. All three (Otago Girls’ and Otago Boys’ High Schools Combined Choir, the Otago Girls’ High School Choir and Cultural Chords - the combined OGs/OBs Pasifika choir) performed extremely well during both the adjudicated sessions during the day and the Gala Concert at night. Cultural Chords gained a Commended certificate, with the combined and girls’ choirs gaining Highly Commended - great results for all. The highlight of the night was the combined choir winning the Best Performance of a Classical Composition category with “A Lover and his Lass” by Matthew Harris. Anticipation is already building ahead of the announcement of which 24 choirs will make it into the Big Sing Finale to be held in Dunedin in August. This year the Choral Federation will also be holding a ‘Cadenza’ concert for the next 12 choirs in the South Island.

Further progress on the settlement of the teachers’ collective agreement appears to have been made with the regional rolling strikes and rostering home actions set down for next week cancelled. We will inform you of further developments as we are made aware of them.

Yesterday we had our sports and cultural photographs. This is one of several occasions during the school year when formal school uniform is required. This means the kilt, not trousers. When the trousers were approved as a uniform option by the Board it was on the understanding that the formal school uniform would remain the winter kilt. All students must have the kilt with the trousers being an optional extra that can be worn when the formal uniform is not required. Please note that the trousers are not a substitute for the kilt or the summer skirt.