School House Newsletter - Term 1 - Week 1

By Vai Mahutariki | Posted: Thursday February 2, 2023

Welcome to our week one newsletter

Greetings and welcome to our School House Hostel families in week 1 of the School year. It has been an active and enjoyable first week of the year with lots of routines and administrative tasks completed. We welcomed our New Year 9 group of boys into School House Hostel as well as many other new boys from other year groups. The weather has been very warm and we are looking forward to taking advantage of this. As we send this newsletter out to you, The Rector Mr Hall and I are travelling with our Year 9 group at to the Otago Boys’ High School, Mt Aspiring Lodge to spend some time with our new boys and strengthen those relationships as a group.

Year 9 Boys Welcomed

The Year 9 boys have made a great start to their time in School House and at Otago Boys’ High School. They are learning about morning and evening routines and making lots of new connections and friendships. On Monday they walked through the Archway officially for the first time as an OBs boy and were greeted by our Year 13s and other seniors. Hostel year 9 boy, Marley Leevey spoke very well on behalf of all the new students. The year 9 boys have been getting acquainted with the use of Roberts Park in the afternoons throwing the ball around and having some fun. They have also begun learning the School House Haka, a haka that is unique to School House hostel connects well with our OBHS values and ethos. New classes have been attended and new teachers met.

Year 10-13 Boys return

All out other year groups have returned ready for learning and engagement and made a good start to their year also. All seniors had academic coaching this Friday to ensure they had their goals and aspirations for 2023 and beyond in line with their future plans and development.  We welcome our new School House boys:

Year 10 - Gun Phan-Iam, Mai Jearadisak, Lucan Brensell.

Year 11 - Max Inkersell.

Year 12 - Mack Wrigley, Kellen Eskridge, Siaosi "George" Asi, Chanwoo Mun.

Fire Drill Completed

School House hostel completed their termly Fire and Evacuation drill on Thursday to ensure our boys especially the new ones understood where and what they do in certain situations and emergencies. A number of prefects helped with some coordination and it ran smoothly. It was completed in a timely manner and the boys were very sensible. Staff will now look at how we can improve things further.

REACH system

New parents should have already received details and logged in to our Reach system so you can access leave etc. for your son. 

Also a reminder to please put in leave ahead of your son/s departure please so staff can action accordingly and not hold up the process.

 Any issues please email [email protected] 

Long Weekend - Otago Anniversary Weekend - Weekend out

The weekend of Friday 17th - Monday 20th March is a Weekend out of hostel. Please make sure your boys leave is in and transport is organised etc.

150th Reunion just over one month away - February 24-25 2023.

The 150th Reunion is three weeks away. Both evening events are completely full and the day activities look to be very popular also. The planning committee has done a great job keeping this organised and ready to go. They still need some help for some final items. As part of the event there will be a BBQ put on the Saturday 25th February as part of the special sports games being organised between hostel and day boy Old Boys including the cricket match. We would really appreciate some donations of meat for this BBQ please. Items such as sausages, steaks etc would be welcomed in order for the planning committee to run this. All proceeds from the BBQ go directly to the School House Hostel for your boy/s. If you can support please email [email protected]

Thank you to those families who have already donated towards this event.

OBHS Old Boys Golf Day - 17th March

On Friday, March 17th we have our annual Old Boys' Golf Day. As it is a long weekend that weekend many of you will come to collect your son from Hostel - why not enjoy an afternoon of Golf before picking up your son? It's always a fantastic day around 18 holes meeting new people and catching up with friends. All proceeds from the event go directly to the OBHS Foundation whose purpose is to raise funds and assist in the promotion of education, learning and development of Otago Boys' High School Students. If you would like to enter a team please email [email protected]

Upcoming Dates:

Friday 10th February - School Athletics Day

Monday 13th February - Timaru Boys High School Interschool - Summer

Friday 17th March - OBHS Old Boys Golf Day

Large Speakers Prohibited in School House Hostel

This is a reminder that Large Speakers will not be allowed in the School House hostel. Any that are brought in will be confiscated and then handed back when your son returns home or collected by family.

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