by Amanda Wright

End of term International Dinner and Graduation

Last night we celebrated our students who have graduated from DHS. We also acknowledged our wonderful homestay families. We finished the term with an International outing at Rubicon Valley Jetboating.

We celebrated the graduation last night of our 6 Setagaya students from Tokyo. These students have been welcomed by our students and homestays. They have embraced in so many activities and challenged themselves with many sports and classes they would not normally do. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Setagaya and we wish the student's safe travels back home.

We also farewell Natsuki who has been with us 1 term, she has also been a wonderful student for our School. She will agree she gained a lot of confidence while being here and we loved that she has been involved with outdoor education again trying our new and exciting activities.

We farewell our group of 6 Thai students who leave School this term, they are joining a tour group at Easter and will enjoy some wonderful sights in the South Island. They have been so warmly welcomed by classmates and their buddies so we are very grateful to these students who made this happen. Today we will acknowledge those students with a farewell with the group and a Thank you.


Hosting students as a school can only work successfully if we have a team working together. That team is made up of International staff, homestays, school staff and students. Last night we thanked our Homestay families with a Fish and Chip dinner. These get togethers are also really important as it gives families a chance to meet other families who host and share their experiences. At DHS we have been incredibly fortunate to maintain our families after the disruptions from Covid.

We have a wonderful group of homestay families who go out of their way to make sure the students are well cared for and have a wonderful experience while they stay in New Zealand. As a department we couldn't accept students if we didn't have this amazing team.