School news

Introducing our new staff

My name is Praneel Kumar, and I am thrilled to be joining Otamatea High School as your new Digital Technology teacher. With 13 years of teaching experience in Fiji, I have had the pleasure of guiding students through the exciting realms of technology and engineering. I am a proud graduate of the University of Fiji, holding a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Technology and Information Systems from the University of the South Pacific. Additionally, I have a Graduate Certificatein Education from Fiji National University. My journey in education has been deeply fulfilling, and I am eager to bring my passion for Digital Technology to Otamatea High School. I look forward to embarking on this new chapter and learning together as a community.

AIMS 7s rugby

Here is the AIMS 7s rugby team in their playing gear at the tournament in Tauranga this week. AIMS is the largest Intermediate sporting competition in New Zealand. 

NZ Secondary school Tournament week

Rugby Hurricanes Cup

I proudly made the Whangarei Rep Rugby Composite team that traveled to secondary school tournament week this year. Our team played in the Hurricanes Cup tournament in Wellington. There were 24 teams from all around NZ competing.

Due to low numbers of rugby girls attending Otamatea, this was a great opportunity to further my playing season and make new connections throughout the time present at this event.

We started off on Monday with a horrendous loss to St Marys College Wellington losing 65-0 but making a comeback with our second game of the day winning 72-10 vs Horowhenua College. Three line breaks and a try later I proudly showed off my Central Kaipara shirt to the large crowd watching. 

Tuesday rolled around and so did the thunder. Hair sticking up and numb fingers we played three games. Starting the morning off with another loss and finishing our grading games with a win! Two hours later we had our final. With a back and forth try scoring game we quite literally slid to a draw against Hastings Girls High. Fields now unplayable we made our 7 hour drive back home with bumps, bruises and black eyes.

We placed 3rd overall which we were really proud of. 

O’Shana Crane-Lima

North Island Secondary School Equestrian Championship

Last week my horse Million Dollar Bill and I traveled down to Taupo to compete in the North Island Secondary Equestrian Championship.
This competition was a multi discipline event so we got to step outside of our comfort zone and try something new. However due to me entering late,  a lot of classes were full so I could only compete in half the events.
We ended up placing in all our classes with some classes having over 100 competitors.
4th Arena eventing
4th Show jumping
4th show jumping
7th show hunter
We also got 2nd overall in the jumping and 23rd in most points year 11-13 with over 170 competitors.

Stevie-Ray Rawaho-Ball

Options Afternoon Expo

On Monday 9 September all Year 10 to 12 students had the opportunity to discuss the subjects they would like to take next year with Head of Departments, Senior leadership members, the Career
Advisor and subject teachers.

Every department had a display of what students need to consider when choosing the subject and there were some examples of student work. Students had their forms ready and could mark the subjects they would like to take and then take the form home to discuss with their parents. A few parents also attended in the afternoon and had great discussion about their student’s choices.

The Senior Course Directory sets out the pre-requisites and contents of each subject as well as information about Gateway, Self-driven Pathways and Correspondence courses. This directory can be found on the school website and in the email sent out by Nicky Cotching last week.

Rural Designs 2024

On Friday 6th September, the Year 10 Green to Gold and Level 1 Primary Industries classes went to Rural Design Nurseries in Kaiwaka. We were given a tour of the nurseries by former Otamatea High School students Blake Worsdfold, Logan Jaques, and Banyon. We were divided into groups and learned the importance of planting the waterways of the Kaipara with native species and planted some native trees on the banks of the water reservoir. We learned how to propagate plants from cuttings and how to pot up seedlings by doing some practical exercises. It was a great day and everyone enjoyed the “hands on” experience.
Thanks very much to Rural Design and Blake and the rest of the team for hosting us. 

Tournament of Minds Challenge Day

This year we had an all boys team for the Tournament of Minds. They were Max Senior, Hunter Sim, Liam Barclay, Luka McLachlan, Cade Moore, all Year 10’s and Cooper Massey and Hugh Stuchbery, Year 9’s.

They chose the STEM challenge to work on, which was called “Not so Fantastic plastic”. Looking at plastic pollution in the world they developed a prototype for a train that would gather plastic from roads. The plastic goes through the train and gets ground up, washed, melted, compacted, and stored for later removal from the train.

They presented and demonstrated their prototype to three judges on Saturday 31 August at Diocesan Girls High School in Auckland. The overall comment from the judges was that it was an “Incredible design with an excellent explanation covering each stage of the process. Focus on lifting presentation skills and understanding all elements of the competition. You have clearly shown your expertise in the STEM area.”

They also had to do a spontaneous challenge showing how creative they could be in 5 minutes. For this the judges said: “This team rocked it with exceptional teamwork, brilliant thinking, and loads of creative ideas! They tackled challenges together like pros, combining their skills seamlessly and thinking outside the box. Fantastic effort, and a joy to watch in action!”

These efforts saw the group earning third place in the Secondary STEM challenge. An excellent outcome and a challenge to next year’s TOMS teams.

The photos show the group waiting for the results and with their certificate. Everybody had to evacuate the building when the fire alarm went off and the photo gives an idea how big this TOMS event is - 55 teams with 7 members each and supporting parents and staff.

Report an absence

You can notify the school of an absence using the portal, by phone at 0800 682 628, option 1, or by email at absence@otamatea.school.nz.
The old google form is no longer in use, our school website will take you to the portal if you click on 'Report an Absence'.
Our school portal has been updated and the new address is https://otamatea.school.kiwi/
If you need help with accessing this please email Mrs Cadman alison.cadman@otamatea.school.nz

For any bus passes, after school arrangements, student needs or requests, please email studentcentre@otamatea.school.nz

APPEAL TO THE OTAMATEA HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY

We are fast approaching the "business end" of the school year - especially for our senior NCEA students.
In preparation for these our seniors will be sitting their mock exams in week 10 of term 3 - 23rd - 27th Sept.

As we have always done in the past, we are putting out an appeal to the community to help our students with special assessment conditions (SAC's) during the sitting of their exams, especially their NCEA finals.

This could be as a reader/writer or it may be to supervise a group of students who need separate accommodation or breaks or extra time.
You will be remunerated for any time spent at school in this capacity.

My thanks to those people who have done this in the past and have gotten in touch to let us know you are available again this year. You will also need to make sure that your police vetting check is up to date.Please spread the word and get in touch. It could also really suit some grandparents who have grandchildren here. They would have vested interest, plus are usually very patient.

Please get in touch if you can help. Please call me on  0800 682 628 Ext 236

Kind regards

Paddy Hallissey
(Learning Support Services Manager)

Pet Day 2024

This year Pet Day will be Saturday October 19th to tie in with the Maungaturoto Primary School 150th celebrations.  Otamatea students are invited to compete with a lamb, calf or chicken.  For entries and a copy of the rules please register with Pepe ewenequine@gmail.com