School House News
By Matthew Markham | Posted: Monday October 14, 2019
Welcome to another term, a term which will be the final one in the schooling career of our Year 13 boys.
While it may be short (only eight weeks) the term is action packed with end of year functions and of course exams.
I am happy to announce that we have appointed a new Kitchen Manager, Mrs Donna King. Donna has had a varied career in all aspects of food production from running cafes, managing and cooking for up to 500 in factory cafes, to being a pastry chef, cooking for students in University hostels to fine dining restaurants and catering. Donna officially started in the first week of the holidays catering for the hires that we had, and the feedback from the various groups about the food was very positive. Along with Donna I would like to welcome Mr Glen Hutchinson to the team in the role of weekend chef. Glen was born and raised in Dunedin but has just returned from Sydney where he has spent the last 24 years working in a variety of cafes and hotels. We are extremely fortunate to have been able to employ two very experienced and capable chefs. Helping Donna and Glen will be kitchen hands Millie Fraser and Molly Jeffery.
A big congratulations to Angus Faulks who has been named in the New Zealand U18 Touch team. The hostel has a long tradition of producing players for national sporting teams and Angus has very much continued that tradition. Well done Angus! Angus’s brother Hamish was also selected in a New Zealand U16 Touch development camp team. It will be an interesting term for the Faulks as Angus is Hamish’s dorm monitor! Congratulations as well to Michael Manson who, due to injury got called from the Barbarians to the New Zealand Secondary Schools team for their match against Australia. Well done Michael!
The first major event this term is the Skippers Feast which is on the 1st November. All Year 13 parents are welcome to attend. This is the official hostel farewell for the Year 13 and for some boys it is an emotional night as they realise that they are finishing at School House. For many boys it is not until this term that they truly realise that they will be leaving shortly!
The weekend of Skippers Feast is a busy one at the hostel. On the Saturday night following Skippers Feast we have the world cup final. The boys will be able to stay up late and watch it and the hostel will provide some snacks for the event! Fingers crossed it involves the All Blacks! The following day we have the hostel working bee. Due to the rugby, we will start a little later than we normally would at 10am. We have three main areas that need attention - the gardens, spouting and painting. I will send out further details about it next week but for those coming please have a think about what you would like to be involved in.
Next month we also have a Year 7 open day at the hostel and the Year 8 sleep over. The sleep over is a big night in the lives of our new boarders and always an interesting evening seeing the boys adapt into the boarding lifestyle, if only for a night!
Despite all these events the clear focus for the term is academic. The seniors have obviously got some extremely important examinations looming, but the juniors are also in exam mode very shortly. Junior exams are on the 18 -19th November and these are vital. It provides the boys with a clear understanding of where they are at and gets them into good routines for the future. After the junior exams we will be running a Year 9 and 10 activities programme to keep them busy. The last day of school for the juniors is the 6th December.
Have a great week and I look forward to seeing you all at the various events at School House this term.
