School news

Parent Teacher Interviews – Wednesday 31st July starting 1pm

All parents are encouraged to attend. 
The online booking app opens at 10am Friday 5th July and closes at 12pm on Tuesday 30th July.
To book appointments parents/caregivers should log on to: www.schoolinterviews.co.nz the event code is bkjk8. 
Those families who do not have internet access, are encouraged to ring the school office and we will make the bookings for you. 
Buses will run at 12.30pm on Wednesday 31st July

Atiu Creek Tree Planting 2024

On Friday the 21st June the L1 Primary Industries and Year 10 Green to Gold classes went to Atiu Creek Regional Park, Tapora to help with tree planting. Native species were planted on a steep hillside as part of a program to plant 31 000 trees every year on the 2000 acre property. After planting 795 trees the group was provided with a BBQ lunch. In addition to contributing to the conservation effort, the Year 11 students were able to gain credits in tree planting. The attitude and effort of all students during the planting was excellent and Conservation Volunteers NZ was very impressed with the students tree planting abilities.
Many thanks to Conservation Volunteers New Zealand for organizing the day for us and to Ladene Hunter for assisting.

Last E-sport game in competition played

On Thursday 4 July our e-sports team played their last game in the New Zealand High Schools E- sports Clash organised by the Waikato University. They faithfully turned up for nine weeks in a row,
after school until around 6pm. Although they were not confident with Valorant, the game being played, they valiantly tackled every game.
In the end they lost four times and won five because the other teams forfeited. Teams would forfeit because they didn’t have enough players or were not ready on time. That never happened to our
dedicated team. The energy in the room was high and every opportunity taken was celebrated with loud cheers.
25 teams across New Zealand took part. The top teams, of which we will not be part, will play the final games at the beginning of next term.

The photos show them ready and waiting to start and in the game playing. The team members were William Fox, Alex Parry-Ernst, Ben Muller, Egor Shefer and Aaron Texeira, all Year 12 students.

Otamatea Girls Premier Basketball team

The Otamatea Girls Premier Basketball team has had an excellent start to their season playing in the Harbour A competition for the first time. The team contains players ranging from Year 9, through to Year 12 and includes first year players and experienced older players.

Travelling down to North Harbour every Thursday Night has been a challenge for the team, however the team has bonded well and heading into their 10th game of the season against Long Bay College Premier they remain unbeaten. The team has been led well by older players Anahera Worsfold and Jade Ferrari. Anahera currently leads the league in scoring at 22ppg and Jade would definitely be leading the league in blocks if they tracked all stats. However, every player is contributing weekly to their success. Trinity Ulisala and Keira Morris have been great on defense, Harper Dowson has been raining threes and Ava Morrison is rapidly improving each week.

With the bulk of the team still in year 9 and 10 the future is bright for basketball at Otamatea.
To follow their results and highlight videos follow @otagirlsbasketball on Instagram.

Producers and Consumers show case 2024 Year 8

Well done to all Year 8 students who attended the Product Showcase on Wednesday 3rd July, in our school hall. What a wonderful array of ideas and products. 

From cake pops to special nuggets and chips, organic beef jerky and sunny burgers, 2024 Producers and Consumers went off with a bang. The hall was a hive of activity where 4 Year 8 classes created a modified smart snack, then produced a package adhering to all the nutritional guidelines needed for a sellable product.

A big thanks to all the students for their hard work over the term and to Aunty Bosch, Mrs. Baker, Sam Phillips, and Tracy Christie for their role as judges. The winners of the varying categories will be recognized in the junior assembly next term.

Deck hand qualification program  - By Tennessee Brewer 

I started my journey on boats not very long ago. I wasn’t very familiar with the boating industry until I had a week long voyage with the R Tucker Thompson. I had a little bit of a passion to work on sailing yachts and sail the world, after going on the R Tucker Thompson it really sparked and ignited my passion for this and it made me really want to pursue working in the boating industry. I was luckily given the opportunity to be selected for an opportunity of a lifetime which was to be part of the QDC course program sponsored by the R Tucker Thompson. The Qualified Deck Crew (QDC) is a national deck certificate. With a QDC certificate, you can perform the functions and duties of a deck crew member on non-passenger ships and passenger ships of less than 24 metres length, operating in restricted and near-coastal waters.
The QDC Program was delivered by the R Tucker Thompson Sail Training Trust (RTT) in partnership with Skipper Training NZ, utilising the campus facilities of QRC Tai Tokerau.

The course provided numerous tools such as a tutor who was absolutely amazing and taught us throughout the entirety of the course, an admin leader who made sure that all the paperwork was up to scratch so that when it was sent to Maritime New Zealand there were no issues therefore we could get the qualification faster, the R tucker team, Russel radio, and Carol who taught us all about health and safety.  
The course itself was really amazing as it not only focused on the theory in class we also got to use  that theory out of class and put it into practical practice by going on numerous vessels such as the local fairies the dolphin discovery and the R Tucker Thompson. This was quite amazing because we were able to use the skills and knowledge that we had learned in class on the vessels themselves.
The course also provided us the opportunity to gain our first aid certification and our MRROC certification as part of the program as these certificates were needed for the qualification process. I learned a lot from this course such as parts of a vessel and equipment, vessel operations processes, Mtop and Moss (health and safety), rope work such as splicing and whipping, knot tying, safety procedures on board vessels, emergency procedures, safety equipment, navigation, navigation equipment, chart work, vessel cleanliness and hygiene, and so much more. I was also given the opportunity to operate the dolphin discovery, and the R Tucker Thompson which was a great experience. I made so many friends and memories along this course and strongly encourage anyone who wants to work in the boating industry to try out for this course.
I am very excited to take my qualification further and hopefully get my skippers ticket in the close future and also hopefully one day own my own charter business.