Acting Principal's Notes

Kaipara Schools' Visit   Week 2 has been another busy week for students at Otamatea High School. On Monday the senior prefects from secondary schools in Kaipara visited Otamatea. There was a powhiri and then the senior prefects had the opportunity to meet the Year 13's and look around the school before meeting together to discuss issues within their respective schools. The Principals also took this time to meet and look at the important educational issues affecting our schools. I also had the pleasure of showing the Principal's around as our students had their healthy lunches. They were impressed with how the students and staff managed their lunchtime.

The Science Fair for the Year 7 and 8 students took place this week. With the B block upgrades and the hall being used for lunches this year we transferred the Science Fair down to the Country Club. I was able to visit the Fair on Thursday evening and was pleased to see a number of parents down there looking at the students' work. The Science department has done a great job with setting up the displays and I would also like to thank the Country Club for all of their help in allowing us to use their venue. Results from the Science Fair will be published on our website next week.

Education Outside of the Curriculum. There have been a number of activities this week. There has been a ski trip down to Ruapehu from Monday - Thursday led by Marco Troost and Sam Phillips. The mixed collegiate hockey team not only played their normal Monday night game but also went to Warkworth on Wednesday for the Lower North Tournament. There has been the Northland Badminton championships on Thursday as well as our Year 13 physical education class taking part in the Tough Guy/Tough Girl Secondary School competition at Helensville. Yesterday music students travelled Friday to the Aotea Centre after school and in school the inter-iwi debating competition final was held between Whātua and Maniapoto. The moot was "That online learning is superior to in-school/in-person learning". The winner will be announced at assembly on Wednesday.


Next week we look forward to Open Day on Thursday and there will be well over 100 students, along with their parents and teachers, looking around the school on the day. Then next weekend Reporoa College arrives at 2.30pm on Sunday 15th August. There will be basketball fixtures in the afternoon followed by a potluck dinner. On Monday more competitions will take place followed by the Yr 9-13 school social in the evening. Much work has already been put into this, the 55th sports exchange, and we look forward to an excellent couple of days.

Paul Chambers