May and it is Term 2 already! It is great to welcome our international students back. 

Starting this term is Bohan from China. Bohan is starting as a Year 9 student with plans on long- term study at Shirley and in New Zealand. We welcome him to the Shirley family. Our international student body has grown to eight students.  

The fabulous weather over the holidays meant our students could really enjoy some distinctly New Zealand experiences.

Pete and Liew, our Thai students spent time down in Twizel.

Louis from France started his break with an AFS camp up in Hamilton where he met students from many different countries. He then had a great trip over to the Coast and down to Wanaka via the glaciers, with his host family.

Ryosuke took part in the First and Second 15 rugby training camp down in Oamaru. They played against Waitaki Boys while down south.

Keigo and Yusuke did volunteer work at the Travis Wetlands.

Keigo attended an Anzac dawn service.

Yusuke celebrated his 17th birthday during the holidays. Congratulations Yusuke!

Our Japanese lads, together with host families, enjoyed the Crusaders vs the Sunwolves game on Good Friday. There was a great atmosphere with the Crusaders’ horse riders and the Japanese traditional drums. While the Crusaders were the firm favourites, the Sunwolves defended valiantly to the very end and in the last 20 minutes the Crusaders were unable to score.

On the first Monday of the holidays, Ryosuke played rugby against Knox College of Sydney, Austraila. His team won. After the games, the Sunwolves came to school for a public training session. It was great to see a professional team train especially as one of their coaches is Atsushi Tanabe who is an international Shirley Old Boy from 1996.

Keigo, Koki, Yusuke and Louis together with host brothers Cam, Elijah and Connor, enjoyed and afternoon on the high ropes course, Adrenalin Forest at Spencerville. Koki conquered his fear of heights and we were all very impressed to see him challenge Level Four of the course.

Keigo, Koki and Louis visited Akaroa in the last week of the holidays. The weather was spectacular. We started with a walk out on the Onawe Peninsula which is a site of great cultural significance to local Iwi. The views of the harbour were incredible. After the walk ,we headed over to the Akaroa township. We visited the Giant’s house and its amazing mosaic garden. After a very pleasant picnic lunch down by the Jetty, we took a Black Cat Cruise out around the harbour. It was very calm and smooth. We were very lucky to see a lot of Hectors Dolphins.

The new term has started and the boys are keen to get started with winter sports. Rugby, Badminton and Table tennis are all featuring our International students.

We are looking forward to doing some community service as an International team and were involved “mother of all clean ups” around the Avon Loop. We also look forward to doing some planting around the council reserves in Christchurch. 

It is wonderful to see the international students so involved in school and community life.

We are expecting a large group of short- term Japanese students to arrive on  29th July .

We are looking for host families.  Any families interested in joining our homestay data base can contact Leanne Russ, International Administrator on  lor@shirley.school.nz