Tis the season of exams!

With junior exams starting today and senior exams already well underway there is obviously a strong academic focus in School House this week. It was fantastic to see School House presented with the Stuart St Shield for the first time at the senior prizegiving and there should be no reason why this is not backed up in these exams. I wish all the junior boys the best of luck for their exams.

This week marks the end of the major NCEA exams with most boys having their last exam this week. Come Friday, there will only be a handful of senior students left in the hostel. With the seniors just about finished we start looking ahead to next year with the Year 8 sleepover on the 7th December. We have a very large intake of Year 9’s next year and with interest strong in other year groups as well, we will have a very full hostel in 2019. There is also a very significant waiting list. While this is of course very positive, large numbers do put a strain on our facilities and a great deal of work is needed over the holidays to have the hostel ready for when the boys return at the end of January. The hostel in the holiday period is often not the quiet place you might think it is.

In 2021, boarding at Otago Boys' turns 150 years old. To celebrate this special achievement, the school will be hosting a series of functions on the weekend of the 19th-21st February 2021. Planning is now underway but is still very much in its infancy. Before we go public with the dates, we are consulting the community to see if there is a clash with a local annual event, for example A and P shows. If there is a reason why we shouldn’t hold it on this date, please let me know. We obviously want to avoid any event in the lower South Island (as far as possible) that may threaten the availability of people.

The boys that were in the hostel on the weekend went to paintball on Sunday. Paintball really is a favourite of the boys and they were quite prepared to brave the hail and rain to play. They all returned in good spirits, comparing war wounds.

I hope you all have a good week despite the wintry weather we are currently experiencing.