From the Senior Leadership Team

Today we had a mufti day for students so they could join staff in wearing pink to get behind Pink Shirt Day. This is an annual anti-bullying campaign that originated in Canada and is now recognised and celebrated all around the world. The origins of Pink Shirt Day can be traced back to 2007 when two high school students from Nova Scotia, Canada, organised a protest against bullying. They witnessed a fellow student being picked on for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school so in response, they purchased and distributed pink shirts to their classmates as a way of standing up against bullying. At Otamatea High School, all year 7 and 8 students have a dedicated lesson each fortnight where they are taught about bullying through the KIVA programme. There are three main aspects of KIVA: prevention, intervention and monitoring. Next year we plan to roll this initiative out to all year 9 students.

Industrial action continued this week with year 9s rostered home on Tuesday, and year 10s rostered home on Wednesday. Next week there will be no classes for year 11s on Thursday 25th May. It is disappointing that a settlement has yet to be reached as our students are the ones paying the price with even more time away from school.

A reminder that we have a schoolwide cellphone ban for all year 7 to 10 students, and seniors are only allowed to use their phones at school outside of timetabled classes. Parents/caregivers will receive a letter from the school if their child is not meeting these expectations. Please support us by having a conversation with your child about their cellphone use, and the importance of following school rules. It is very noticeable when walking around the school during break time that students are more active and are talking to each other more. We are also seeing fewer distractions in the classroom.

All the best to our school band The Patient People, who are one of the top 12 bands playing off at the Northland regional final of the Smokefree Rockquest competition at Whangārei Boys’ High School this Saturday night. They have been practising hard all week and I am sure they will put on a great performance.

I am pleased to see a lot of progress this week on getting our six new classrooms ready. These classrooms will be known as G-block when the work is finished later this term. Four will be senior English classrooms, and two will be year 7/8 syndicate classrooms. The Ministry of Education will be delivering an additional six classrooms to us later this year, which will mean we will have 12 extra classrooms in 2024. These are necessary because of our projected roll of approximately 750 students in 2024.

It has been fantastic to see a great turn out of senior students attending Academic Mentoring sessions this week with their caregivers and whānau teachers. Feedback from families has been extremely positive. Caregivers gained a better idea of where their students were at academically and how they were tracking towards their goals, many gained a deeper understanding of NCEA and left feeling more confident about who to contact if they had any concerns or questions in future.  Each whānau was provided with some reading material, tools and homework. It is nearly time for students to gauge whether they have met their first short term academic goal and to set their next one.

If you have a Y11-13 student and have not yet managed to schedule an appointment, it is not too late. Please contact the school office.  

 

With the cooler weather upon us it’s a great time to clarify out school uniform requirements.  Students are allowed to wear a plain black long sleeved thermal under their school shirt.  This must always be tucked in.  We also have a school jersey and a school jacket available.  Students are permitted to wear long trousers, but they must be the school trousers with the school logo on them.

Shoes need to be plain black.  Socks also need to be plain black and should not have any colours or logos on them. 

We do not allow students to wear non uniform jackets, hoodies, or beanies to school.  If your child is in the incorrect uniform, please provide them with a note and remind them to go to our uniform exchange before whānau time in the morning.

All our uniform items are available for purchase from Paparoa Drapery. Further information on our school uniform can be found on our website. 

SAVE THE DATE  On the 21st of June we will be holding an evening event at school - Kai and korero.

You are invited to attend our community Hangi event. An opportunity to meet, eat and share in the learning for our year 9 cross curricular unit, year 11 science assessment and year 7 & 8 science programmes. It will be a great evening with a kapa haka performance, music performances, delicious hangi and the chance to chat with others in our community.

Keep a look out for more details of the event and information on how you might be able to help us put this wonderful evening together.