Kia ora everyone, we are Lisa and Lily, the sports prefects for this year! Our role in the school is to promote being active as well as celebrating and acknowledging the impressive sporting talent at Otago Girls High School. One way we celebrate achievements at school is by having a ‘Sportsperson’ or ‘Sports Team of the Week’. At assembly, individuals or teams are mentioned for their achievement over the past week and given an award. It is always great to see a different range of students receiving these and demonstrates not only the talent but also the many different activities and sports people are involved in both in and out of our school.

We believe it is incredibly important for everyone to maintain some sort of fitness throughout the year. Staying active is extremely beneficial for our bodies - not only physically, but also socially and mentally. By doing some sort of exercise, we can meet new people, feel included, clear our minds, feel a sense of satisfaction, achieve goals and so much more (not to mention the natural endorphins!). Staying active doesn’t mean we have to wake up at 5am to go to the gym, go for 10km runs or have a set workout/exercise schedule every week. In fact, making these strict or unrealistic routines is likely to eventually end up in stress, burnout, injury and/or a sense of unaccomplishment. Instead, doing things that we enjoy and can easily add into our everyday lives is much more effective and likely to become routine. This can include going to a fun pilates class, walking to a cafe, playing in a social netball team with friends, going to run clubs and more.

During the recent holidays, with the help of Ms Hokianga and the Sports Coordinators, we were able to hold a sports fun day. This was a day when students in years 5-8 from schools around Dunedin were able to come and see what sports at OGHS is all about. We had an amazing time with some fun competitive tabloids and ended with some intense games of dodgeball. It was so cool to see the students who attended all engage with students from other schools and different year levels in a positive way which created a great environment for the day to be held in. Thanks to funding from Te Manawa Active Aotearoa we were able to give all students an awesome experience. This included being able to provide a spread for morning tea and individual lunch meals along with many prizes from Otago Sport and trophies made by our very own Mr Pickard. We were glad to see all students leave the day with huge smiles, many great memories and enjoyment all round.

We hope everyone has an awesome term with winter sports starting back up. We look forward to hearing your achievements!