Te Pānui o Otamatea

School Notices 24 June 2022

Calendar of Events
Monday 27 June	Collegiate hockey at Whangarei 3.30pm Year 12/13 Defensive Driving course at OHS 2pm - 3.30pm Year 7 Poetry Cafe 1pm (venue A block common area)
Tuesday 28 June	Inter-iwi basketball Defensive driving course at OHS for Year 12 and 13 Period 2 and Period 3 EOTC Year 7-13 Northland Cross Country at Barge Park 8.30am - 4pm
Wednesday 29 June	Inter-iwi basketball Defensive driving course at OHS for Year 12 and 13 Period 2 and Period 3 EOTC Mid week football Boys and Girls Board of Trustees meeting at 6pm in the staffroom
Thursday 30 June	Inter-iwi basketball Defensive driving course at OHS for Year 12 and 13 interval and Period 5 Tauraroa Area School Jazz band performance for OHS year 7 & 8 and music students at 2.30pm EOTC Year 9-13 squash to Whangarei Squash Club 8am - 4.30pm School Social
Friday 1 July	Inter-iwi basketball EOTC Auckland Career Expo for Year 10 - 13 9.15am - 3.15pm
Saturday 2 July	Year 7 - 13 MotorCross at Ruakaka
Sunday 3 July	L2/L3 Tourism trip to Rotorua leaving 9am Sunday returning 5pm Tuesday Kapa haka noho 9am - 4pm
Monday 4 July	Yr 8 Consumers and producers in the school hall from Period 4 Monday - end of day Tuesday Collegiate hockey at Whangarei 3.30pm
Tuesday 5 July	Yr 8 Consumers and producers in the school hall from Period 4 Monday - end of day Tuesday Girls in Infastructure trip L1 Business students YES workshop all day in P1
Wednesday 6 July	L3 Hospitality trip to MIT leaving 6.30am - 4.30pm Year 9-13 girls rugby to Kaikohe 7.30am - 5.30pm EOTC Mid week football Boys and Girls
Friday 8 July	Last day of Term 2 Waiata and haka competition
Monday 25 July	First day of Term 3

View our full School Calendar here

Principal's News

Enrolment Scheme: A reminder that the Ministry of Education (MOE) continues to work with the Board of Otamatea High School to implement a new enrolment scheme, to be put in place for 2023 student enrolments. This has become necessary due to the rapid roll growth we are currently experiencing. Enrolment schemes are needed to help manage the risk of overcrowding at schools. The MOE has completed their consultation process with our communities and we are now waiting to see what the submissions that have been made look like before a final decision is made.

Staff Only Day: We had a very productive staff only day on Thursday, with sessions on Matariki, te Reo, relational pedagogies as well as on developing our year 9 cross curricular units on the Kaipara. A big thank you to Reno Skipper who also shared his extensive knowledge of the local histories of the area with us and who inspired us all to continue on our journeys of learning more about the Otamatea region.

Matariki: Matariki is traditionally one of the most important Māori celebrations as it signifies the start of the New Year. At assembly on Wednesday, our manukura Teina Whare-Paikea spoke very well to our students about the meaning and importance of Matariki. He explained that Matariki is a time to acknowledge loved ones who have passed away during the past year, as well as a time to reflect and to be thankful. This is our first ever Matariki public holiday and I do hope you all have a very enjoyable long weekend.

Attendance: I am pleased to see that our attendance rates have continued to rise, with average attendance for the week at 85%, which is close to the 90% minimum average attendance target for our students that we aim for. The Matariki long weekend is a great opportunity for students to catch up on outstanding work, especially seniors as there are now only 15 weeks of school left before senior prizegiving.

Masks: Students and staff are encouraged to continue wearing masks when at school. Remember all students 12 years and over need to continue wearing masks when travelling on the school buses.

Open Day: Our annual Open Day is coming up quickly next term - the 11th August. We are starting to promote this day to our feeder schools so please mark this date in your calendars if you have children intending on coming to Otamatea High School next year. Open Day is a fun, interactive day that showcases many of the exciting subjects that we offer here, and is very popular with our visiting primary school students.

Rockquest: A huge congratulations to our school band Patient People for making it through to the Northland Regional Finals (top 12 Bands for the Smokefree Rockquest competition). Also a massive congratulations to Pigeon Paradise on their fantastic performance. We have so much talent at our school and it is wonderful to see these students on stage, giving their best, and representing our school so well.

Ngā mihi
Dirk Smyth

Sports News

Collegiate hockey vs Hora Hora. Otamatea won 4 - 1
Otamatea Netball UNISS team played Rodney College in the Matoma Cup tournament. Rodney won 24 - 17

Boys football team played Kaitaia College and won 3 - 1
Girls football played Bay of Islands College and won 4 - 0
Otamatea Green Intermediate basketball team played Ruawai and won 60 - 10. Otamatea Blue had a bye. Next Wednesday is the finals.
Table Tennis Champs - Leo Cannon and Rikki Beazley had a wonderful day with Leo making it to the first round of playoffs.

School Notices

Parent Teacher Interviews – Wednesday 3rd August starting 1pm

All parents are encouraged to attend.

The online booking app opens at 10am Friday 8th July and closes at 12pm on Tuesday 2nd August.

To book appointments parents/caregivers should log on to: www.schoolinterviews.co.nz the event code is vdnc5.

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 3rd August

WORK EXPERIENCE DAY 11 AUGUST 2022

On the 11th of August all Year 10’s go out on a work experience day organised by parents. In the careers programme students have been exploring the challenges in the world they would like to tackle one day. This day is an excellent opportunity for students to get to know people who work in the fields they are interested in, see what they do from day to day and ask them about the training they did for the work they do.

Please watch this video about work shadowing. It clearly explains seven steps to take, from deciding who to approach, how to behave and what to do afterwards. If you could start talking to your child about what the possibilities are that you can manage, it would be great. On Tuesday all Year 10 students and parents will receive a letter explaining the details for our day.

We are building on the success of the first Work Experience Day last year. We could see a difference in students’ attitudes to learning afterwards and in the uptake of Gateway opportunities by year 11 students this year.

Please get in contact with Elizabeth van den Berg elizabeth.vandenberg@otamatea.school.nz if you have any questions. We are very excited about the day and hope you will see the benefits of your efforts.

Please register to attend our Open Day here

Community Notices

USED BOOK FAIR! Hundreds of books – fill a shopping bag in return for a gold coin koha! Maungaturoto Public Library needs to make space for new books, so all these must go. Great selection of fiction and non-fiction – there are bargains here for everyone!

The USED BOOK FAIR is being held during the next school holidays, from Wednesday 13th July to Saturday 16th July inclusive from 10am – 1pm.

Location: Footprint room behind Holy Trinity Anglican Church at 132 Hurndall Street East. (Look out for the roadside banner.)