South Otago High School News

16 February 2024 Newsletter

Kia Ora Tatou

This week has seen that last of the Year 9 classes visit Greenpark on Monday. Sadly, I was unable to attend but the reports back have been great to hear. Not only do the teachers have an important role to play in this day but also a number of our senior student leaders. Thank you to everyone who made both Greenpark days such a success for all of our Year 9 students.

School values
This week we were able to have our first full school assembly since the start of year. As an introduction to our new students I outlined the importance of being able to work together and how the school values of Respect, Excellence and Perseverance are a guide to working in school. Students can exhibit these values by:

Respect: Can be shown by the way in which you treat others, by the way in which students wear their uniform, thanking their teacher at the end of the class, holding the door open for people to walk through.
Excellence: Producing the best work, first time. This may mean practicing maths questions or drawing graphs in science, or reading about the topic in social studies or the next chapter in your book for English. Excellence is constantly looking to improve personal performance and not settling for second best. Excellence can be in training for rugby, netball or practicing lines for a production.
Perseverance: This is about not giving up, not saying ‘I can’t do this’ or ‘This is too difficult’. It is determination and being stubborn.

At South Otago High School we do expect that all students will work with these values in everything that they do.

Cell phones, ‘Away for the day’ policy development
Last week I thanked everyone who had contributed towards the feedback on the government legislation that phones are to be ‘away for the day’ for all school students. Since then I have received requests for exemptions to allow students to have their cell phone in school.

Currently the school continues to operate under our existing policy which is that students may have their phones to use at lunchtime and interval but they are to be put away and silent during lesson and mentor time. Currently the teacher may grant permission for students to use their lesson during the class time.

As part of the new policy development there will be a process for parents/whanau to apply for an exemption. Once this is finalised this will be shared with our community. Until then the school will not be processing any requests for exemptions under the new policy.

School attendance and co-curricular activities
In the news earlier this week was reported that student involvement in sport was linked to academic achievement. That is, students who play sport or who are active were shown to have attained better results in literacy and numeracy assessments.

At South Otago High School we encourage all students to be involved in either sport or cultural activities. Our reasoning has been that it helps to develop teamwork, communication skills and healthy social relationships. Now we can add to this and say it also shows that it can support good achievement in class too.

However, it is important that students do attend and participate in class learning. Sadly, a very small number of students forget this importance and in these cases their attendance can suffer as a consequence. Therefore, at South Otago High School we expect that students will have an attendance rate of 80% or more in order to be able to participate in co-curricular activities or represent the school. For senior students, if their attendance is below 80% they may be declined entry into the Senior Night of the Ball (SNOB).

The Government sets the minimum attendance for children as 90%. So, what is the difference. 80% attendance means that a student is absent one day a week. In a school term, that means they are absent for 2 weeks or absent for 8 weeks in a year. In five years of education at 80% attendance that is a year or education that a child is absent and missing their learning. 90% means they are absent for half that amount, which is still too much!

We want students at school, we want them learning and we want them participating in the wider life of the school. We want them playing sport or performing in cultural competitions but it cannot be at the expense or instead of their in class time.

Finally
Next Tuesday is the annual school athletics sports which will take the full day. I am aware that some students will be pestering parents to say that they do not want to go or that they cannot run or any other of hundreds of excuses. We expect all students to attend school for the day. Students who are not athletic can still participate by assisting in some of the events or marshalling competitors.

Please make sure that your child comes to school for the day regardless of whether they are going to compete they will have a fun day. This year there will also be a special sausage sizzle which will be raising funds for Saryn Semens and her family to purchase a special bike so that she is able to ride with her family. Please do send your child along with $2 for a sausage! It is such a worthwhile cause.

Have a great weekend.

Ka kite ano

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