From the Senior Leadership Team

We have received lovely feedback recently from some of our visitors. The first, a lady from Service IQ, who had not been here since before Covid, could not stop saying what an awesome vibe our school has. Then on Wednesday the ladies doing the vision testing commented that our year 7s had the nicest manners they had heard in a school. It is always wonderful to hear such positive comments about our students, and to hear that they are demonstrating our WAKA values. One of the messages I have discussed with students this week is the importance of respecting diversity, being inclusive of others, and recognising that we can be kind and tolerant of others even if we have different beliefs.

Recent legislative changes now require all schools to have policies on "Reducing Student Distress" and "Minimising Physical Restraint". Schools also need to ensure that parents, caregivers and the school community know about these policies. Please click here to access our school policies. The username is 'otamatea', and the password is 'bickerstaffe'. A reminder that we are also reviewing all of our EOTC policies this term. Your feedback is most welcome.

Teachers' industrial action has been suspended until 30th of May. It means that our Year 13s, who were previously going to be rostered home on Tuesday, will now be at school. We will find out over the next few days if the industrial action will continue after Tuesday and will keep you informed as soon as we receive notification from the PPTA.

Congratulations to all students who have achieved so well recently in their various sports. Our football and basketball teams are playing very well and both recorded big wins recently. A special congratulations goes to Alicia Moir who took out first place in the under 18 girls section of last week’s Northland Scholastic Surf trials. What a fantastic result. This week we had our inter-iwi arts competition running during intervals, and next week is the inter-iwi football competition. These events are excellent opportunities for students to get more involved in the broader life of the school, and to earn house points for their iwi.

Please ensure you are familiar with our uniform regulations (click here for full details). With winter on its way there can be a temptation for hoodies and other non regulation items to be worn to school. Students are expected to wear the correct school uniform at all times, including when on the buses or when walking to and from school. 

We have a staff only day coming up on Tuesday the 6th of June. This follows the King's Birthday public holiday on Monday the 5th. Staff will be doing an UBRS course on this day (Understanding Behaviour and Responding Safely), as well as undertaking training on understanding the new guidelines on reducing student distress and minimising the need for physical restraint.

Winter sports have begun with gumboots, beanies, umbrellas and travel mugs back in business.  We would like to acknowledge all of the whānau, student and staff volunteers that help to provide these opportunities for our students.  Our staff who are regularly out coaching, umpiring and managing Otamatea High School students in their own time include; Samid Buksh, Chris Byars, Alex Linnell, Nikola Kemp, Stephanie Hutchinson, Samara Foster, Helen Anderson, Kay Robinson, Marco Troost, Amy Dempsey, Tina Holst, Bruce Alison, Jess Baker, and Taira Phillips.  We sincerely apologise if we have missed anyone.  A massive thank you on behalf of our students.

All of our senior students will have had their academic mentoring meetings with their whānau teachers last week.  In the booklet that they were given, they will find their NSN (National Student Number) which they can use to set up access to the NZQA website.  This is something that all of our senior students should be familiar with.  The NZQA site is where they can find their record of learning and exam timetables and this is also the site that they will use to access digital exams.  Please encourage your child to set up their access to the NZQA site by going to nzqa.govt.nz and following the prompts to set up access.