Principal's News

Reporoa Exchange: I thoroughly enjoyed our school trip to Reporoa for our annual exchange last Sunday and Monday. 35 of our students were involved, competing in basketball, futsal, volleyball, 7s rugby, netball and debating. The end result was a 5-2 win for Otamatea High School meaning we retain the Hathaway Family Shield. Our students were amazing, and represented our school with pride. They were very competitive yet showed outstanding sportsmanship throughout, and certainly gave mana to this exchange which is now in its 56th year. I am looking forward to hosting Reporoa next year.

Senior Study Day: Please note that there will be no school on Monday the 29th August for year 7, 8, 9 and 10 students. All senior students (years 11 to 13) are expected to attend. We are running a special study skills and coaching programme to equip our seniors with the skills required to be successful students, and to have confidence to go into the workplace.

Netball Success: Congratulations to Pyper Buxton and Zoey Smythe-King who were selected to play in the Whangarei under 14 representative teams. Pyper played for the under 14/1 team which was undefeated in their two tournaments. Pyper's team also moved up an age grade to the under 16's at the Kaikohe tournament. They came away with a second place in this grade. Zoey played in the under 14/2 team which placed 2nd in the second tournament in Whangarei and won the Kaikohe under 14 tournament. Congratulations also to Leayah Buxton for passing her zone theory umpire exam and for being invited to umpire for the Whangarei Girls High year 9 and prem teams at an Auckland tournament. Ka pai girls!

Sickness: We are still seeing quite a lot of sickness, including COVID-19 in our communities. Please be aware of the following. If your child has been unwell with a respiratory illness other than COVID-19, they can return to school 24 hours after they have significantly improved and are behaving/eating normally. Following vomiting or diarrhoea, your child should be symptom free for 48 hours before they return. If they still have a runny nose or dry cough without any other symptoms such as a fever, vomiting or diarrhoea, then they are unlikely to be infectious and can be considered well enough to attend school. 

Enrolment Evening: On Wednesday night we will be hosting our first enrolment evening of the year for those students wishing to attend in 2023.  We are fully booked already with over 110 students booked in. We will be having additional enrolment evenings in September so please contact Nikki Donaldson at ohs@otamatea.school.nz  if you need to make an appointment. Enrolment Scheme: A reminder that the consultation process for our proposed enrolment scheme closes today - Friday the 19th August. Here is the link should you wish to make a submission. Board Elections: Nominations have now closed for parents wishing to be on our school board. I am pleased to see that we have enough nominations for a vote to take place. Eileen Parsons, our returning officer, will be in touch shortly to explain how the voting process will work. Policy Review: Each term a number of school policies come up for review, as part of our triennial review programme. If you wish to provide any recommendations on these policies, please click on this link, The username is Otamatea, and the password is bickerstaffe. We value your feedback. 110 Year Old Article: I have included a 110 year old article from the Rodney and Otamatea Times that you may find interesting. It seems that the effects of global warming were quite well understood all the way back in 1912.

Ngā mihi
Dirk Smyth