Thank you to all the staff, families, whānau and friends, as well as to Kaiwaka Primary School for accommodating the group of Mangawhai students who were unable to return home on Friday night. It was a mammoth task and a real team effort in making sure all our children were looked after for the night. Thank you to the kind words from one parent who said "Big shout out to Otamatea staff for the way they handled this event - everyone stuck & needing accom for the night. Communication was A+ & your care & responsibility was the epitome of community values. Pakipaki & thank you  ". Much appreciated.

Well done to 8S for running a very successful year 7 and 8 assembly in the hall on Wednesday. The students who spoke from the stage really impressed me with their confidence, and they spoke clearly and articulately to the audience. It was wonderful seeing so many students on stage receiving awards for their outstanding effort in class, and also to those year 8s who achieved their William Pike certificates. 

We had a very successful athletics day on Thursday for our year 9 to 13 students. We were very lucky with the weather and the day finished with the excitement of watching the inter-iwi relay races. Well done to all students who participated in all the events they could, and a huge thank you to the parent helpers who gave up their time to support us on the day.

We have our first staff only day of the year coming up on Friday the 10th March. The day will be used to train staff on the new bullying prevention programme (Kiva) that we are implementing with all year 7 and 8 students this year.

Baseline assessments:
Today our Year 7 and 9 students completed Baseline assessments in the school hall. These measure students’ strengths and weaknesses across four sub-scales: literacy, numeracy, visual/non-verbal and processing.

Otamatea High School students will be completing these assessments at the beginning of Year 7 and 9, and at the end of Year 8 and 10. The completed tests are sent away to a team at the University of Canterbury for marking and analysis. Detailed online feedback is later provided to the school which is useful for identifying students in need of extension and learning support, monitoring value added from our teaching and learning programmes and highlighting and areas for future improvements in our curriculum areas.

If your Year 7 or 9 student was absent from school today they will have an opportunity to complete this testing early next week.

It’s hard to believe we are at the end of week four already and weather aside, we have had an outstanding start to the year.  Students are settled and looking amazing, wearing the correct uniform with pride. 

This week has seen students participate in school athletics day, our first inter Iwi competition.  It was a fantastic event with impressive performances, participation, and conduct from all our senior students. 

I would like to thank the parents, caregivers and whanau for your commitment to ensuring students are arriving at school ready to engage in learning and are consistently following our Waka values. I am especially grateful for your support with our new no phones at school policy for students in years 7,8,9 and 10. 

If you have any concerns regarding your child’s wellbeing, please feel free to contact adrian.cooling@otamatea.school.nz

Buses:
We would like to thank our whole community for their patience while we went through the sometimes messy business of introducing new bus routes.  Due to our incredible roll growth we now have 15 bus routes that service our High school community. 
It is important that your child is on the bus that they are assigned to and that we are aware of any arrangements where your child might not be on their assigned bus. If you require your child to be on a different bus for purposes other than returning home or coming to school please let us know. We will always endeavour to accommodate these changes but where buses do not have capacity this will not be possible.

Any questions or queries regarding routes should be made to song.easybus.nz

Any complaints regarding student behaviour should be forwarded to huia.coll@otamatea.school.nz

Chromebooks:
A gentle reminder that all year 10 to 13 students should be bringing their chromebook to school each day, fully charged. There is a small pod of loan chromebooks that can be borrowed from the library each morning BEFORE whānau class and can be returned at the end of the day for those students who forget theirs. Thank you to all those families who have been in touch with us to let us know that you cannot provide a chromebook. If you still require support with providing your child a chromebook, please get in touch with Mrs Coll, huia.coll@otamatea.school.nz

Mathematics at Otamatea High School

The mathematics department is off to a successful start to 2023. The arrival of 90 new graphics calculators that were purchased using a grant that we were given at the end of 2022 has meant senior students have access to calculators that are more suitable for the topics they are studying. Senior students are currently preparing for their first internals which will begin next week.  Junior students are currently studying Number strategies and will be having assessments soon.