Acting Principal's Notes

This week has seen the senior students in the school involved in the mock NCEA examinations. It has been pleasing to see excellent attendance at these assessments and the commitment they have made to do well, particularly during this Covid 19 time where there is so much uncertainty with regards to lockdowns in the future.

On the 28th and 29th of September Wiremu Sarich, a youth worker from Te Runanga o Te Rarawa Trust, came to share his knowledge and skills in teaching Traditional Māori Games. The year 9 students were engaged, motivated and enthusiastic about learning new games. The lessons were fast paced and encouraged students’ to use their own talents and skills in working as part of an effective team. The purpose of the visit to Otamatea is to enrich the learning for our Year 9 Cross Curricular ‘Discovering the Pacific’ unit, where students are learning about traditional Māori Games and their development through migration from Polynesia to now. The sound of laughter in the air was abundant, and students all benefited from this amazing experience. 

The inter-iwi school road race during the first week of term 4 will now be taking place on the Country Club walking track. The new name of the race will be 'Round the Loop Running Race" to reflect this. All year 7 and 8 students will be expected to compete, with the rest of the school optional. The winning iwi, however, is the one that mobilises their runners to take place in this competitive, but fun afternoon.

As we go into the holidays, we hope that you and your child/children have a refreshing time together and come back for term 4 ready to finish the year well. In this break it is a good time to make sure that all uniforms are conforming to the school code. Black shoes and socks are areas that students need to improve upon, and they need to remember to come to school in uniform and leave school in uniform, whether on the buses or walking.

Next term we welcome back Dirk Smyth as the new Principal of Otamatea High School. The staff at school were delighted with this appointment and look forward to a new chapter for the school with Dirk at the helm. As I hand back control to him, I would like to thank all the staff for their support and tremendous effort that they have put into the school throughout an extremely busy term. We are very fortunate to have such a great team supporting the education of our students.

He Waka Eke Noa.

Paul Chambers