Sickness and Wallabies

Last week was rather interesting with a number of boys sick. What made it really unusual though, was that a number of staff were also sick!  Janis informs me, that her one day record is 35 off school, we were not even close to that mark. A couple of parents also commented that when they were at boarding school, the hostel was shut when over half of the students were sick, with the healthy ones having to go home! So while we have had a lot of sick boys we weren't quite at that level last week.

With senior exams at the end of the term and winter sport winding down, the focus for the rest of the term in the hostel is academic. Often boys treat these internal exams with little respect, however they are vital. Success breeds success and boys who failed internal school exams tend to miss out come the end of the year.  I will be speaking to the boys about this over the next few weeks.  

On Sunday the organised activity was Leap. They have a new climbing wall there and the boys had a great time racing each other and testing themselves, as you can see from the photos.  

The lower part of the hostel (by the housemaster units and Janis's house) is currently a construction site. Last week we had a blocked pipe and to clear it we have had to replace a small section of the pipe. As the blockage was over 3m under the ground this has been quite an exercise. All things going well this will be completed by the end of the day. 

It was great to see on Saturday night former hostel boy Jermaine Ainsley making his debut for Australia. The Otago Boys' Hostel (School/Campbell House) certainly has an amazing track record of producing international rugby players. Rough estimates suggest that over 10 hostel boys have gone on to be All Blacks, which is more than most schools! Some of these are of course, iconic All Blacks such as Ritchie McCaw and Charlie Saxton. We can now add a Wallaby to the list! 

Just a reminder about some upcoming events:

• Ski trip 21st-23rd September.
  
• Year13 Hostel vs Day Boy league game last day of term.
  
• Hostel Parent/Teacher evening last day of term. 
  

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