Classrooms will be a little emptier this week - and sports grounds will be a lot fuller.
Secondary school sports tournament week began yesterday, the week teams from a variety of sports travel the country to face off.
Competitions range from the highest level of school sport in the country, down to second and third tier.
Several tournaments are being held throughout Otago.
Football is making full use of its new artificial turf at Logan Park in the Linwood tournament. One of eight boys' football tournaments around the country, it contains teams mostly from around the lower South Island.
It began yesterday and the floodlights at the new turf allow games to go into the evening.
Basketball's junior South Island championships culminate at the Edgar Centre today.
The tournament began on Saturday and attracted 43 teams between the boys and girls grades, as well as the second-tier boys grade.
Down the road at the Dunedin Ice Stadium, ice hockey's South Island championships began yesterday and continue until Thursday.
Meanwhile, hockey tournaments are being held around the south in Invercargill, Cromwell and Oamaru.
Otago schools in plenty of other sports have travelled to various destinations to contest their own tournaments.