From the Senior Leadership Team

It is disappointing that the Ministry of Education has not put a decent offer on the table for our teachers to consider. It has now been nearly one year since their last collective agreement expired. As a result, teachers' industrial action resumed this week when the year 12s were rostered home last Thursday. Next Thursday there will be no classes for year 9s.

A reminder that we have a staff only day on Tuesday the 6th of June. This follows the King's Birthday public holiday on Monday. 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. Normal school for all students resumes on Wednesday.

Well done to all of our Duke of Edinburgh students for their dedication in working towards their bronze, silver and gold awards. Our silver group enjoyed a challenging, yet rewarding hike to Cape Brett last weekend. There are so many benefits to the DOE programme - from personal development, learning new skills, getting physically active, learning about the importance of service and community engagement, and of course experiencing the great outdoors of our beautiful country. 

We'd also like to congratulate Maggie Burke and Mia Asuncion. Maggie is a finalist in the Play it Strange Youthtown Songwriting competition and will be recording her song "Chocolate and Backstreets" during the school holidays, after which it will be included in the competition album.  Mia has won the Year 7/ 8 category of the 2023 Paparoa Lions Speech Competition. She won the Year 7 Speech Competition at Otamatea High School last term and wrote a new speech for the Paparoa Lions Speech contest. Mia's speech was on “What would I do to make sure my future is sustainable”. At an assembly at a later date, she will be presented with the trophy from Paparoa Lions Club. 

Our board of trustees recently developed a new firearms policy that I am now putting out to the community for consultation. This is mainly to cater for students who participate in clay target shooting off site, but it also covers other scenarios such as when Blue Light, for example, may be at school running a youth programme with some of our students. Your feedback is most welcome. A reminder that we are also reviewing all of our EOTC policies this term.  Please click here to access our school policies. The username is 'otamatea', and the password is 'bickerstaffe'.

Today we celebrated our amazing support staff here at Otamatea High School with a morning tea. Our support staff really are the backbone of our school and their hard work ensures our kura runs smoothly at all times. They are often the unsung heroes of our school and their dedication to our teachers and students is one of the main reasons our school is so successful. 

At assembly this week our head boy drew out the winners of our attendance draw for senior Academic Mentoring meetings. Congratulations to Kylie-Anne Martin for winning the parent prize and Kate Cotching for winning the student prize.

On Monday, 29th August our year 9-13 students took part in a half hour careers experience organised by Te Uri o Hau and funded by the Ministry of Social development. The Y11-13 students controlled their own kiosk on the Inzone careers coach which enabled them to access information and training videos that interested them. There were hundreds of current careers to choose from in organisations such as The NZ Defence Forces, SeafoodNZ, HorticultureNZ, Health, Transport, Construction and Infrastructure, Local Councils, Teaching, IT, NZSDA, Queenstown Resort College, Universities and New Zealand Businesses. Year 9-10 students donned virtual reality goggles and got to experience what you actually do when you are employed in various industries, such as NZ customs, tourism, earthworks, horticulture, farming, and aquatic sciences. This service was facilitated by Skills VR. 

On the 12th and 13th of June, selected year 10 students will take part in the new NZQA Literacy and Numeracy co-requisite examinations.  You will be sent a letter if your child is selected for these examinations.  The co-requisite examinations replace the traditional pathway for gaining NCEA Level 1 Literacy and Numeracy requirements.  It also means that students in year 10 who are ready to sit the examinations, can do so.  Some students will not be ready to sit the examinations until either later in their year 10 year (there is another opportunity in September) or in year 11.
You can find out more information about the Literacy and Numeracy co-requisites at https://ncea.education.govt.nz/change-3-strengthen-literacy-and-numeracy-requirements-and-assessments-0