From the Senior Leadership Team

We welcomed a number of new teachers at the start of term: Rita Howard (English), Quentin Clough (Junior Science), Jo Searle (Junior Science and Food Technology) and Lesley Williamson (Junior Science - starting Monday) will be with us for term 2. Grant Weston will be covering mathematics while Mrs Khan is on maternity leave, and Chris Byars (lead Guidance Counsellor) joins us permanently. We are fortunate to have these experienced teachers with us, especially given the secondary school teacher shortage this country is currently facing.

Industrial action continues this term, and at this stage there will be no school for year 11s on Thursday 4th May, with PPTA member teachers across the country not teaching this year group on this day. Other year groups will be asked to stay at home in subsequent weeks as these students are rostered home. There is also a full day strike planned for Thursday 11th May. Hopefully a settlement will be reached soon to avoid this but does not seem likely. This is very disappointing as students now face further disruptions to their learning. Teachers have already been out of contract for 9 months.

I am pleased to see that SH1 Brynderwyn Hills will re-open to all traffic in both directions on Monday the 1st of May. As a result, Glenmohr Road bus students will once again be departing from Glenmohr Road from Monday onwards. The buses will leave at 8.10am in the morning, returning to Glenmohr Road at approximately 3.55pm in the afternoon. 

Please ensure you have made appointments for Wednesday's first parent teacher interviews of the year. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet your child's teachers, and to find out how they are progressing. Senior students are nearly a third of the way through their year and, having completed their goal setting for the year, should be setting high expectations for themselves. We recently awarded NCEA badges to last year's seniors who gained either merit and excellent certificate endorsements, or excellence subject endorsements. Very few students who gained endorsements had 2022 attendance rates below 90%. If your child is not attending school regularly, they are very unlikely to achieve anywhere near their potential. Please ensure your child is at school every day.

This term sees the start of our bullying prevention programme - KIVA - being taught to all year 7 and 8 students. Last term teachers received professional development and training on how this works, and I am looking forward to the success of this programme going forward.

Last week Otamatea High School prefects attended our local Anzac Day memorials in Maugaturoto, Waipu, Matakohe and Hakaru   Those that attended did an outstanding job of representing our school.  Students were proud to be part of these very special commemorations, participating in the parades and laying wreaths in honour of the sacrifices made by ANZAC soldiers, and to show their support for those that continue to serve in the armed forces.   

Our Prefects did an amazing job representing our school.

On Monday we held a staff only day at school with the major focus of curriculum development.  Our syndicate team developed their structured literacy programme and worked on our new bullying prevention programme - KiVA.  The other departments spent the day progressing with the development of our Year 10 diploma units and assessments to better align them with NCEA, enhancing the resources and assessments in our Year 9 cross-curricular units, and planning for the upcoming changes to NCEA Level 1.   We also had several new staff joining our team who took part in an induction session to familiarise themselves with our school systems and expectations.  They also spent time with their departments to clarify the material they would be teaching this term.    We appreciate that this day may have inconvenienced some families.  However, it was a valuable day for our staff, that was well utilised.

Congratulations to Jackson Wintle, Caleb Laurence-Goss, Elliot Hartles and Te Oranganui Kingi who participated in the  Northland Regional Inter Schools Chess Championship at host school Hora Hora in Whangàrei on Friday. These students played individually and as a team, and took out the top team in their division, getting a medal and certificate of distinction! This now qualifies them to represent Otamatea High School at the Nationals tournament  On top of that, Jackson took out the top overall player of their competition and is able to not only go through to the Nationals, but has also been asked to play in a Champions Trophy tournament later in the year, which is invite only. Well done boys! Congratulations to Pyper Buxton and Caitlin Heke for being selected to play in the Aotearoa Māori Netball Oranga Healthy Lifestyles Tournament. This tournament was played down in Taranaki over Easter weekend with over 700 players from all over New Zealand. Pyper was selected to represent Te Tai Tokerau Māori Netball U15s where they placed 5th and took away 3 trophies for best dressed, best waiata and the best stomp. Caitlin was selected for Tainui U17s where they came away with 2nd placing. Zoey Smythumpired the junior teams at the tournament. Congratulations to all three of our Otamatea High School students.