School news

Producers and Consumers Event - Year 8  product showcase

Parents caregivers and whanau are invited to the school hall 12pm on Wednesday 3rd July to view the Year 8 students' product showcase. Students have been learning about the rights and responsibilities of consumers and producers, as well as advertising language, and product development. Here are some photos from last years' event. This is a wonderful event for students to showcase their ideas and creativity! 

DOE Top Forks/Gillespie Tracks Gold Qualifier Dec2 to 8 2023

Our group flew to Queenstown and caught a bus to Makaraoa. We had done an enormous amount of fundraising so we could take a helicopter to Jumboland Flats. This was such an exciting moment as most of us had never been in a helicopter before. The views were amazing! We tramped for three hours to the Top Forks Hut. The scenery was stunning with mountains surrounding us.
The next day was to be a day of exploration of the area, but overnight there was a  thunderstorm and heavy rain. The rivers had risen making it impossible to cross safely. We headed towards Rabbit Pass, but the rain came back so we retreated back to the hut.
The gold qualifier begins....
Day 1: This was the first day of our gold qualifier .We tramped down the valley past the place the helicopter had dropped us to Kerrin Forks hut. 
The day was hot and we all headed to the Wilkin River pools for a swim. The river was still running high and swift. Hopefully it would drop over night so we could cross safely.
Day 2: We headed off early in the morning to make a river assessment. The group decided (with Stephen's guidance) that we would need to all link up and do a ten person crossing. It was exhilarating to feel the power of the water as we carefully shuffled our way across safely linked up as we had been trained to do. We headed up to Siberia Hut( 630m) , claimed our bunks and headed up to Lake Crucible for the afternoon. This was a test of our climbing skills and once we came out into the open tops again, the mountain daisies and Mt Cook lilies were everywhere in flower. We climbed to the top of the moraine wall where we were treated to the most amazing views of a cirque and frozen icebergs on the lake.It was such a hot day, Noah, Jade and Zander climbed on to an iceberg , made snow angels and jumped in!! Once we got back to the hut it was communal dinner, a game of five crowns and bed. This had been our favourite day so far.
Day 3: Today was our climb up over Gillespie Pass (1600m) Once out of the tree line ,Mt Awful was to the left of us and the Pass was slowly reached. We were tramping through snow near the top and the weather had changed, needing all wet weather gear and layers to be put on. One of the adult shadow party had pulled a calf muscle so again all the group's training was put into action as gear was redistributed.
Once safely down the other side of the saddle, we headed to Young Hut for the night. 
Day 5: We headed down the  Young valley following the Young river until we came to a final major river crossing of the Makarora River. We linked up again, but the flow was nowhere near as strong as the Wilkin River had been. We walked along the road into Makaraoa where we stayed  the night before heading back to Queenstown for our flight home the next day.
This has been an adventurous qualifier which has given us life long memories. Thanks must go to all the amazing people who offered us fundraising opportunities and  also to the Rotarians, Paparoa County Depot trust, Maungaturoto Opportunity ,and  PTCA for their kind monetary donations.
Thanks to our families for your support.
 A huge THANKS to our shadow party, Stephen, Andrea, Anna and Mrs Bruce. We have had such an amazing journey with you all through our DOE award.

Career Expo

Last Thursday 80 Year 12 and 13 students travelled to Auckland to the Career Expo at the ASB Showgrounds. These Career Expos are held in 7 different cities across the country.
Students got the opportunity to talk to a variety of providers of tertiary education for lesser-known courses for careers such as legal executive, surveying, land planning, commercial piloting.
There were several engineering-related stalls, ranging from Babcock to Sims Metals, the latter a company that recycle metals. The defence forces had a high-profile presence and a number of our students benefited from talking to the representatives there.
There was also general information stalls such as Kia Ora Hauora and Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora; Inland Revenue and Universities New Zealand.

Year 7 Poetry Cafe 

Our Year 7's have been diving deep with poetry this term culminating in our annual Poetry Cafe event. We had a great turn out with whanau attending to listen to students read their poems and display beautifly published booklets with the work completed this term. We would like to extend a big thank you to UNISS for the delicious catering and apologies to whanau for the cold water in your coffees at the start. Thanks for being such good sports about it all.  

Northland Secondary School Cross Country

The Northland Secondary School Cross Country was held on Wednesday 25th June at Barge Park. The weather was changeable throughout the day with cool conditions.
Congratulations must go to all our students who represented Otamatea High School with pride.
Our top results go to the students below.

Denika Clooney - 1st in the Senior girls 4000m, with a time of 16 minutes.
Reef Gardner-Baker - 3rd in the year 7 and 8 boys 3000m, with a time of 11 minutes and 50 seconds.
Esme Worsfold - 5th in the year 7 and 8 girls 3000m, with a time of 13 minutes and 21 seconds

If you are in Mangawhai this Sunday come along to Bunnings and buy a sausage or some baking from our prefects. They are raising funds for their legacy project. 

Maungaturoto Op Shop will be at school selling ball dresses 

On Tuesday 2nd Maungaturoto Op Shop will be at school for first interval (10.25am-12pm) to sell ball dresses to senior girls. A selection of the dresses will be available to view on the school's Facebook page this weekend. Dresses are $10 - $25, and some shoes will be available for $5. Payment by EFTPOS or cash (no paywave). After that, dresses will be available to purchase at the Maungaturoto Op Shop,149 Hurndall Street.
If you have any questions, contact Mrs Cadman, alison.cadman@otamatea.school.nz