School House Newsletter - Week 1 - Term 1

By Vai Mahutariki | Posted: Thursday February 1, 2024

Welcome to this weeks School House Newsletter

Year 9 Hostel Boys settle in well to School House life

The new Year 9 Hostel Boys have settled in well to their first week at Otago Boys' High School. They have learnt the new routines and contributed to hostel life very positively. They have also completed some physical challenges together, some educational programmes and cultural activities as well. On Thursday night, they also gave some community service by helping to clean up the streets around the hostel and did some weeding and gardening of some neighboring properties. All in all a great start to their time in School House Hostel, and Otago Boys' High School.

School House Upgrades over the summer.

We have been busy over the summer break completing a number of projects to help make our hostel boys stay even better as well as our staff facilities. We have painted our dorm roofs as well as the housemaster and Matron units. Hawthorne and Thomson dorm have been painted externally, including the windows and railings. Campbell Dorm has had new carpet installed in the stairwells and the west wing. We have begun floor upgrades of boys cubicles and sleeping sections. We have also added more accessible power-points and lighting as well as shelving.

Otago A Cricket

Well done to new Housemaster, Sebastian Lauderdale-Smith who represented Otago A Cricket over the Weekend against Canterbury Country. Great reward for a good summer of form and cricket.

Senior Learning

Thank you to constable Eddie who came in a spent a prep time with our Year 12 and 13 boys on safe driving, drugs and alcohol, and social media. All key topics that these year groups are exposed in life. Some good tips and things to think about by our boys.

Year 9 Hostel Mt Aspiring Camp

The Year 9 boys have just returned from the annual Year 9 Hostel Mt Aspiring Camp. It was a great weekend away over the past 4 days to allow the year group to connect and development friendships that will last a lifetime. Lots of fun was had as well as team building, sports, physical challenges as well as some learning. This has set up the new boys for a great start to both life at Otago Boys' High School and also in School House hostel. A massive congratulations goes to the group who also beat the previous time in the Rock Challenge by more than two minutes completing the previous record in 28 minutes and 2 seconds. Well done. Thank you to Director of Boarding, Mr Mahutariki, Rector, Mr Hall, Lead Mt Aspiring staff member, Mr Rowe and Housemasters Zaiya Mahutariki and Ben Sinnamon, along with our great hostel prefects for making this trip very memorable.

Annual Waitangi Day Junior Games

Our junior students enjoyed a great afternoon of games and activities today as they mixed with the other three high school hostels in some fun in the sun. It is great to have them connect with the other hostels.

Hazlett Tutoring Centre

Below as an attached file is information for one of the new tutoring services that some of our boys families are using in 2024. This is just for your information. Any questions can be directed to their contact details in their flyer. There are a number of other tutoring groups that our families also use.

Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday 7th February 2024 - School Athletics

Thursday 8th February - Class Photos

Friday 9th February - Back up day for School Athletics

Sunday 11th-12th February - TBHS Interschool (home)

Wednesday 14th February - Year 9 Meet the teachers

Follow us on our social media platforms Instagram: @obhshostel and Facebook Otago Boys’ High School Hostel for information and activities our boys are doing.