From the Senior Leadership Team

As you will no doubt be aware, we closed the school early on Tuesday owing to the poor weather. Thank you to those parents who managed to collect their children from school. Our hearts go out to the Whangarei Boys High School community, and to the whānau of the young man who tragically lost his life on this day. This is certainly a time for manaaki and care for all of those affected. This term we are reviewing our EOTC (Education Outside The Classroom) policies and procedures to ensure that these activities can continue to be offered in a way that identifies, manages and mitigates all risks, so that our students can continue to safely experience the broader life of the school. Your feedback is most welcome. Please click here to access our school policies. The username is 'otamatea', and the password is 'bickerstaffe'.

Congratulations to our incredible kapa haka roopu who performed last Saturday at the Te Tai Tokerau Secondary Schools' Kapa Haka competition in Kaitaia. Our students' performance was amazing. They looked fantastic and the choreography was outstanding. Best of all was their impressive singing and this was recognised by the judges who awarded them 2nd place in the waiata tira section. Thanks to matua Wiremu, whaea Taira and whaea Mata for all their hard work getting these rangatahi ready, and well done to our students for their dedication and commitment, and for bringing mana to our kura. 

Well done also to our school band The Patient People, who performed in the Northland heat of the Smokefree Rockquest competition last Saturday at Forum North in Whangarei. They have now qualified as one of the top 12 bands to play off at the Northland regional final at Whangārei Boys’ High School on Saturday the 20th of May. 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.

Industrial action continued this week with year 12s rostered home on Tuesday, and a full day strike on Thursday. Next week there will be no classes for year 9s on Tuesday, and no classes for year 10s on Wednesday. Students have already missed a large chunk of their learning this year so I am hopeful that a settlement will be reached very soon.

On Friday 19 May our staff and students will join schools, workplaces and communities across the country for Pink Shirt Day. This is a national anti-bullying campaign where we will wear pink shirts or clothing as a way of showing our support for those who have experienced bullying. Friday will be a mufti day and students are encouraged to wear pink on the day.  

On Tuesday our chess club started up in the library, and we had a great turnout from students keen to play this wonderful and challenging game. We will continue this throughout terms 2 and 3, and beginners to more experienced players are most welcome to join. 

We are looking forward to seeing our senior students and their caregivers at our Academic Mentoring meetings next week. These meetings are future-focussed and help students to carefully consider subject choices, as well as work and study possibilities when they leave school. Academic progress is discussed and we look at whether students are on track to reach their goals. It is also a great opportunity to identify any barriers to their learning and deepen the student's and caregiver's understanding of how NCEA works.

If you have a senior student and you have not yet responded to your appointment letter, or have not yet received it, please get in touch with Kay Robinson at the school office. 

This week our prefects did a great job planning, organising and running our school assembly. Our prefect’s confidence and leadership skills continue to grow.  They ran an engaging and interactive assembly promoting our pink shirt mufti day coming up on Friday the 19th of May in support of bullying prevention.

Online learning As we have seen around the country recently and over the past few years, there are a number of reasons why a school might decide to shift to online learning at short notice.  It is important that you and your child/ren know how to access the schools online learning portal (or 'Student Links').

Next week we will be doing a series of "how to" snippets on the school facebook page so you and your child/ren will know how to access this in the event that we are quickly required to move to online learning.

It is also super important that we have information regarding computer and internet access for your child for learning from home.  Please get in touch with me (huia.coll@otamatea.school.nz, or Alison Cadman (alison.cadman@otamatea.school.nz) to let us know if you do not have access to a computer, or the internet at your house.  In this case, teachers may be able to provide paper work, or we can get a chromebook out to you.

From the Archives As we watched the PE classes head across the road last week on a damp but balmy autumn morning to practise and train for the next cross-country race, we thought it would be appropriate to find something in the archives from past cross country races.  In the archives there are beautifully handwritten accounts of cross country race results dating back to the 60's in large books that also hold results from other annual sporting events such as athletics and swimming.

Here is the news paper article from 1986 outlining the event day and the results.  Certainly some surnames that we all recognise here!