Winter has struck, well and truly, and I hope that you all received the text message on Friday advising you that the school was closed for the day. If you did not receive the message please contact the school office and get your cell phone number(s) corrected on our system. 

To ensure the girls do not fall behind in their learning during unexpected closures such as this it is expected that teachers will post work for them to do on Google Classroom. In the event of future snow days please support your daughter in completing work that is set for her. This is especially important for girls in the senior school who should be preparing for their parallel examinations which are in Week 7 of this term.

The past week has been a busy and important one for the school with Open Night and Open Days taking place. We have had visits from our main contributing schools during the school day, with Fairfield School’s Open Morning being rescheduled from last Friday to later this week. The Open Morning programme consists of a welcome to the school, a concert that showcases some of the many cultural activities available in the school and then a rotation of classes to ensure the girls receive a taste of the learning environment they will enjoy should they come to Otago Girls’ next year. Our current students do a wonderful job of entertaining and leading the prospective students during these Open Mornings and my thanks goes out to them and the teachers who put together fun and educational programmes for the students to enjoy during their time with us.

Our Open Night on Tuesday night was, as always, a real highlight for us. Considerable time, planning and energy goes into the evening with both the staff and students deriving a real sense of pride from being able to showcase the school to the community. We received much positive feedback from families who attended. If you, or someone you know, missed out on attending the Open Night but would still like a tour around the school, please contact the school office so we can arrange a time for you to come in and visit.

Applications for enrolment in Year 9 in 2017 are due by 4pm on Thursday 18 August. Please ensure we do receive these by this time. If you are relying on your daughter to drop the application for a younger sister into the office for you, please check she has done this before the cut off time and date. Every year we have issues when girls forget to drop in applications.

We are currently hosting Yasuda Girls’ High School from Hiroshima, Japan and the Yip Children’s Choir from Hong Kong. The 30 Yasuda students and two teachers are here as part of a longstanding sister school relationship between our two schools while the Choir’s visit is a first for us. I would like to thank the many families who have made these visits possible by hosting these students in your homes. It is an excellent way to expose your children to the value of learning other languages and to the idea of global travel. Tomorrow night (Tuesday) the Yip Children’s Choir will be performing in the Otago Girls’ High School hall at 7pm and you are all invited to attend. There is no charge for this concert.  

Later this week we have a teacher from the Singapore Department of Education visiting the school while next week the Principal of Guang Ming High School, our sister-school in Shanghai, China will be visiting us and Otago Boys’ High School. Otago Girls’ has many global connections which are of enormous benefit to our school and our students.