Otago Girls’ High School awards Sporting Blues to recognise outstanding achievement and participation. Criteria for an award of a Sports Blue are determined by individual sporting codes with the Board of Trustees approval. All awards are at the discretion of the Blues Committee.

GUIDELINES:

Blues are not generally awarded to junior students unless they have shown exceptional ability and achievement; nominations of junior students will therefore be scrutinised closely. Juniors may receive an outstanding achievement award. The awarding of a Blue at Otago Girls’ High School is a premier award and a large number of factors are taken into account when deciding who will receive a Blue.

The Blues committee reserves the right to decline the award to any student it feels has not displayed the necessary level of sportsmanship and/or who does not reflect the core values of the school: Integrity (Kia Pono), Respect (Kia Whakaute) and Positivity (Kia Hihiri).

For minority sports, the following are considered:

• How big is the sport in Dunedin/ Otago /Nationwide?
• How many competitors were there?
• Could the athlete have gone to the next tier of competition?

Where an individual does not have a pathway to reach a higher level for that sport  then a Blue may be either awarded at the discretion of the committee or other guidelines may be put in place.

Blues are generally not awarded to teams. In the instance where a small team (eg. Equestrian) was to reach an exceptionally high level it may be appropriate for the Blues Committee to award a Blue to all members of the team. This is at the committee’s discretion and recognises that each member of the team would need to be performing at a very high level for the team to achieve this.

The committee may make allowances in circumstances where sickness, injury or examinations prevented participation.

For team sports  students are generally  in a Senior A or top team to receive a Blue.