From the Senior Leadership Team

Industrial action continues this term with little progress in negotiations between the Ministry of Education and the PPTA. Year 11s were rostered home on Thursday, and this Tuesday will see no school for year 12s. There is also another full strike planned for Thursday the 11th of May which will see our school closed for instruction for the day. Secondary schools across the country are struggling with a dire teacher shortage, with a third of advertised positions currently being unfilled. Every student deserves to have a specialist teacher in front of them, so please support our hard working teachers through this period as they fight for better pay, improved conditions and for a profession that is an attractive option to young graduates. 

The Minister of Education recently announced another delay to the rollout of the planned NCEA and curriculum changes over the next few years. The new NCEA level 1 changes will continue to be fully implemented in 2024, but the NCEA level 2 and 3 changes will now only come into effect in 2026 and 2027 respectively. The new literacy and numeracy NCEA corequisites will still be available from next year but will not be compulsory, with alternative options for students to gain their NCEA numeracy and literacy credits available in 2024 and 2025. Although these delays are welcome given the massive workload these changes bring, it is a sad indictment on the state of education in this country when there is a seemingly endless pot of money available for countless NCEA and curriculum changes, and the bureaucracies that support these, yet never enough to invest in those at the coal face - the teachers themselves.

Our magnificent kapa haka roopu travelled to Te Puna Ora, Te Rangi Āniwaniwa north of Kaitaia on Thursday for the annual Te Tai Tokerau Secondary Schools' Kapa Haka competition. Following their outstanding dress rehearsal last Sunday, I was delighted to see they were rewarded with a brilliant and flawless performance yesterday. Well done to all.

It was great to see so many people at our first parent teacher interviews on Wednesday. There will be another chance to talk with all of your children's teachers early in Term 3, after you have received the mid-year reports.  

On Friday 5th May (or Monday if students are absent) our year 11-13 students will bring home an appointment letter for their 20 minute parent-student-teacher Academic Mentoring meeting. We will also post a copy of the letter to residence A addresses. Please respond to this as soon as possible to confirm or reschedule your appointment time. 

These meetings are quite different to the parent teacher interviews with subject teachers. Parents generally find them very useful and often come away knowing more about how NCEA works and what their student needs to do to reach their goals. The student's academic and personal goals will be discussed, their NCEA progress will be analysed, career pathways and attendance statistics will be looked at, and several take home resources will be provided including the 2023 NCEA examination timetable and information on our pathways and gateway programmes. 

All students in year 12 and 13 should know how to log into the NZQA website.  On the first of each month, their academic achievements are uploaded to NZQA and will appear on their record of learning.  Students can also access the end of year exam timetable and see what standards they have been entered into for the academic year.  There is lots of information regarding assessment rules on there too.

Students in year 11 may not have accessed the site before.  They will need their NSN number to set up a login. Students can ask their whānau teachers for this number if they aren't sure what it is.  It is important when setting up an email address with NZQA that students do not use their school email, as they may need to access the NZQA website long after they have left Otamatea High School.

Introducing Chris Byars - our new Lead Counsellor Kia Koutou Katoa It is with pleasure that I have been given this opportunity to introduce myself as a new employee at Otamatea High School. I live just north of Kaiwaka, opposite Pukekararo and have been working at Rodney College for the last few years as a school counsellor, teacher and football coach before my appointment here . I have two daughters who attended Otamatea High School, also I have had contact with this school through both hockey and football over many years.  I am passionate about the work I do as a counsellor and believe that with the right support students can overcome their personal barriers to learning, find their interests and passions in life and turn these into their vocations. I continue to be involved in sport and competed in the Kai Iwi Lakes Triathlon in the weekend. I believe that active participation in sport supports both physical and psychological health and resiliency during tough times, and am encouraged by the number of students here involved in sport. Finally I would like to thank all the staff and students who have made my  transition into Otamatea High School seamless, and look forward to adding my support to this school community.   Regards, Chris Byars (Med in Guidance and Counselling) / NZAC registered

This week Mr Cooling took most of our year 12's to the  RYDA road safety course in Wellsford. It was a great day and is summed up well by  year 12 students Asha Bridge and Ella Crum.

On Tuesday the 2nd of May the year 12 year group were given an opportunity to have an engaging and memorable one day workshop with the RYDA road safety group. This workshop gave  students an educational insight into safe driving and being a safe passenger. We did a series of mini workshops that discussed different factors of driving and safe driving. Some of these workshops gave students tools to help if  a difficult situation occurs whilst  driving. We also spoke to Kelly who was in a car accident, Kelly was in a car accident when she was younger and it has affected her life permanently. This was a big eye opening to us students seeing how you can go from living a normal life to fighting for your life in a split of a second. The educators at RYDA road safety did a fantastic job of teaching us road safety, thank you to all the teachers and people in the RYDA road safety group for making this day happen and being a positive influence on us as the younger generation to make sure we are safe on the road.