South Otago High School Newsletter, 6th December 2013 Nga mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa Warm greetings to you all

Our youngest members of our school have been in-volved with the ‘Clean Up NZ’ day and the staff in-volved with this voluntary community activity were very impressed by the motivation and hard work of our Y9’s. On behalf of the community I would like to thank the students and the staff for this effort. We have finished day two of a sporting competition. The Ki-O-Rahi competition is being held over 3 af-ternoons. This is the national game of NZ as played by the United Nations Youth Council last year. It has needed the co-operation of all departments to make the flags and sporting equipment, learn a waiata and have it recorded, prepare the food and cook it, art for the signage, placards, face paint, and the physical education staff for the teaching of the game, umpir-ing, draw etc. The whole staff and student body have been involved in this competition and it has been a huge success. My personal thanks and sincere appreciation to Ms Anna O’Sullivan for her foresight, hard work and organisational ability in getting this new and exciting game into our culture here at SOHS. I hope to see you all at our Junior Prize-giving on Tuesday the 10 December at 1.45pm in our school hall. Over the summer break please keep in mind the need for us to be conscious of the dangers for our young people if they are out of adult supervision for lengthy periods of time; on the water, camping, travelling with other young drivers or attending concerts, sport-ing exhibitions or just hanging out with friends. They need you now more than ever, even if they are vehe-ment about not doing so. I wish you all a safe, happy summer and festive

celebration. Ka Kite Ano Mrs Joanne Hutt Principal

Tena Koutou Katoa

Well here we are at the end of the year, hasn’t it flown by? We held our senior prizegiving on Monday night at the Town Hall. It was very satisfying to see all our senior students assemble together to celebrate excellence. The guest speaker, Alice van den Hout, spoke about keeping your options open in terms of selecting courses at school or university. She told us that she changed her degree twice while finding what she was really interest-ed in. This is a timely reminder to you to continue to discuss careers and school subjects with your young person over the holidays. We want them to keep as broad a range of subjects as possible, but to continue in subjects they have a passion for. Changes to selections are considered very carefully by deans and subject teachers early in the new year. I wish to congratulate and share with you the naming of our top academic prize winners. Proxime Accessit went to Grace Duncan and the 2013 Dux of SOHS was named as Joshua Telford. Josh tells me that his brother was also Dux and his sister Proxime Accessit, so hard work and academic ability clearly run in the family. Like his whanau and friends, the teaching staff are very proud of Josh’s effort and attainment dur-ing his five years at SOHS. Our heartfelt congratula-tions over this prestigious award, Josh. We have been enjoying a very settled and productive last week of school. Many of our young people have been kept busy with a variety of co-curricular activities whilst the majority of students have been finishing units of work and having the last assessment grades added to their reports. The community have thoroughly enjoyed the junior production ‘The Bungling Burglars’ and I would like to acknowledged the many hours of hard work that Mr Bertanees, Ms Parcell, Ms McPherson, Ms Brown, Mr McLaren, Mr Riechel, Ms Kupa, Mrs Jory and Mrs Gardner have put into our young people. The local primary students came to watch the Junior Production. The look on the little ones’ faces as they sat and watched the play was price-less.

Joshua Telford: Dux 2013

Australian Rugby Tour 2014 Many thanks to all who got involved with The Country Ramble on Sunday - helpers and par-ticipants. We had excellent feedback, so sounds like you all enjoyed it. Tonight we have X-Factor Finalist Tom Batchelor performing to do a concert at the Balclutha Memorial Hall. It will be family friendly, starts at 8pm, and is only $15 per person. We are also about to get busy preparing firewood to burn in the 2014 season, if you would like to order some please contact: gheller@sohs.school.nz or Ph 03 418 4416 (home).

South Otago High School would like to sincerely thank the employers who have assisted us with our work based programmes in 2013.We appreciate your ongoing support of our students and school.

Gateway Work Experience

ABC Balclutha Balclutha Automotive

Antony Groenewegen Builder Balclutha Honda

Balclutha Kindergarten Balclutha Public Library

Balclutha Mitsubishi Balmoral Vets

Ben Keach Builder Big River Educare

Big River Educare Big River Radio

Clutha Truck Repairs Blair McGregor

Fulton Hogan Clutha Panel Repairs

Greg Peoples Builder Clutha Vets

Kaitangata Primary School Cowley & McLaren

Electrical

Kolar Ka Painters CRT

NZ Police Davidson Tyres

PA Duthie Farm Garry Milne Panelbeating

Richard Schofield

Photography Hairworkz

Rosebank Kindergarten Hamish & Janet Erwood

Rosebank Primary School King Engineering

SO Customs Matau Garden Centre

Southern Plumbing Services Mike Hurring Logging

Waiwera South School Regan Maze Builder

Rosebank Kindergarten

Rosebank Lodge

Rosebank Primary

School

The Warehouse

What help is out there? Some of these contacts may be useful They are all free. Otago Youth Helpline 0800376633 call and text 234 talk@youthline.co.nz Alcohol and Drug Helpline 0800 787 984 or text ADH to 234 help4teenz@xtra.co.nz online counselling thelowdown.co.nz online counselling or text 5626 7 days a week midday to mid night. Anglican Family Care 418 2531 Family Support Service Best wishes for a safe holiday season

If your child requires an antihistamine for allergies/hayfever etc they can bring the

tablets in and they will kept under lock and key.

Found A Summer Skirt was found at Touch on

Thursday 5th December. It is at the SOHS Office.

SOHS 2014 New Caledonia French Trip Over the past term and a half, 11 Year 10/11 French students have been assiduously fundraising for our trip to New Caledonia in the April/May holidays next year. In that time we have sold chocolate, cheese rolls, pizzas, pies and lamingtons and tomorrow will be holding our first major event - a yard/bake sale downtown (see the flyer accompanying this newsletter for more details). At this stage, I wish to acknowledge the school and wider community for supporting our cause by purchasing items from the students. Equally, I would like to thank the students and parents for helping me to co-ordinate the fundraising campaign and even spearheading some of our initiatives. Next year, in addition to some more food options, we are looking to run a quiz night (for young and old) and a disco for the primary schools. You can expect to hear more about these at the beginning of Term One next year. Until then ... Bonnes vacances, Elliott Carroll TIC French

Junior Production 2013

The Bungling Burglars

Ki O Rahi

Condor 7s

The SOHS Girls 7s team attended the

Condor 7s National Tournament in

Auckland last weekend. Having also

been in 2012, we knew what level of

competition to expect and we weren’t

disappointed.

We played our 3 pool matches on Satur-

day, winning against Wellington East

College and Fielding HS (first team to

beat them in 5 years) and losing to New

Plymouth GHS. Due to a very tight pool

(3 teams won two games), we lost out

due to points differential.

This placed us in the Bowl competition on Sunday. We

were absolutely dominant, winning all 3 matches, includ-

ing the final, buy over 30 points and without a point

scored against us.

Highlights were the live telecast on Sky of our Bowl Final

match and Sam Hollows’ selection in the Tournament

Team. All up, the weekend was a magic opportunity and

for many girls, their last opportunity to represent SOHS.

A massive thanks to our coach Richard Hurring, manager

Tracey Latta and to all the parents that travelled to sup-

port the team.

Greg Heller (TIC Rugby)

Year 9 Social Studies – Raj trip

Over the course of the year, several Year 9 classes have

visited the Raj Restaurant in Balclutha to sample Indian

cuisine.

India is a topic that is studied at Year 9 level and part of

the learning is around food. Students sampled a variety of

curries, rice and naan bread. For many it was a first time

experience, but for most it will not be their last!

Greg Heller (HOD Social Sciences)

Cricket The first half of the 2013/14 cricket season is drawing to a close with both the boys and girls teams having got into the swing of things. The boys opened with three close losses but won the next two match-es convincingly. Highlights have included: - Jesse Maher 5/14 v Milton - Team total of 307/5 (40 overs) v Kings HS - Dion Willocks 97 v DCA Selection, 57 v Kings HS - Michael White 65 v DCA Selection, 62 v Kings HS - Danuel Wyllie 4/21 v DCA Selection, 77* v Kings HS - Ashton Tourell 60 v Kings HS Boys' crick-et has finished for the year and will resume at the beginning of Term One next year. The girls have played two matches, both losses. Fortunately they were not bowled out in ei-ther game and have competed well on the strength of decent team efforts. While the boys have finished for the year, the girls still have two matches to play (6th and 13th December). Elliott Carroll TIC Cricket

Important Dates: Tuesday 10th December - Last day of School, Junior Prizegiving - starts at 1.45pm Thursday 23rd January 2014 - PTA Second Hand Uniform Sale, 5 - 7.00pm School Hall Thursday 30th January 2014 - Year 9 start Friday 31st January 2014 - All Students start

Junior Prize List Junior Prize Giving will be held at the school on Tuesday 10th December starting at 1.45pm in the School

Hall. This list is of students who will be recognized on stage at prizegiving.

Year 9

Sean Aitken-Boyle

Timothy Aleni

Morgan Allington

Jannah Ariola

Hannah Botting

Jasmine Burrow

Lorna Button

Dana Buyayo

Daniel Cook

Matthew Copland

Dylan Crawford

Tessa Dix

Abby Edwards

Jessary Garcia

Joshua Hansen

Chance Heremaia

Drezarn Hira

Jacob Hutton

Molly Jeffery

Shannon Jelley

Mike Jessop

Jordie Keenan

Madison Latta

Stephanie Lawrence

Cassandra Lott

Anna Mccaughan

Delaney Mckenzie

Natasha McNaught

Conor Mills

Levi Mitchell

Reeve Murdoch

Josie Pirie

Surya Prasad

Isla Pringle

Ella Pryde

Tyler Ritchie

Bradley Ross

Grace Schuurman

Cameron Smith

Tegan Stephens

Luc Thomson

Abby Uson

Reuben Watt

Laura Williamson

Paige Win

Izzy Woodward

Year 10

Jethro Ariola

Jessie Bennett

Tori Brown

Michael Buniag

Leighana Budd

Alyssa Cu

Taylor Clark

Simon Craig

Olivia Finney

Cody Forbes

Jackson Gardner

Hanmish Gillespie

Kate Gold

Laura Graham

Michaela Groenewegen

Tayla Hannah

Sian Hepburn

Joshua Hill

Mitchell Hollows

Atawhai Hotene

Jess Kendall

Sam Keenan

Harrison Lawrence

Hannah Lee

Jordan Maaka

Dane Macpherson

Jesse Maher

Reese Martin

Beckie McKinney

Kirsty Mclaren

Sophie Mills

Todd Nicolson

Shania Pennicott

Liberty Reedy-Waru

Bailey Reichel

Olivia Richardson

Brady Robertson

Kate Robertson

Levi Robertson

Ani-Lee Sexton

Brodie Smith

Ashton Tourell

Brae Tourell

Tasmyn White

Cameron Williams

Chloe Williamson

Katie Willocks

Georgia Wilson

Congratulations to Sophie Mills who

represented South Otago High School

in the Otago Junior Secondary Schools

Speech Competition at King’s High

School last week.