Te Pānui o Otamatea

School Notices 9 June, 2023

Calendar of Events
Monday 12 June	Year 10 Level 1 Literacy/Numeracy exams EOTC Year 9 - 13 11 a-side hockey EOTC L2PRIM Pest Control Course Year 11 & 12 Rostered Home
Tuesday 13 June	Year 10 Level 1 Literacy/Numeracy exams EOTC L2PRIM Pest Control Course EOTC Senior champs boys and girls 3x3 basketball at McKay Stadium Year 9 & 13 Rostered Home
Wednesday 14 June - Thursday 15 June	EOTC Hamilton Field days
Wednesday 14 June	EOTC Year 9-13 Mid week football girls and boys teams (after school) Year 10 & 11 Rostered Home
Thursday 15 June	EOTC Year 7 & 8 Table Tennis in Kensington EOTC Matoma Cup netball Year 12 & 13 Defensive Driving Course Theory at OHS Year 12 & 13 Rostered Home
Friday 16 June	EOTC Year 9 -13 Basketball girls and boys teams afterschool EOTC Defensive Driving Course practicals
Monday 19 June	EOTC Year 9 - 13 11 a-side hockey EOTC Defensive Driving Course practicals EOTC Head prefect/principal visit to Dargaville High School Inter-iwi basketball Year 9 & 10 Rostered Home
Tuesday 20 June	OHS PTCA AGM - Te Whare o Rongo (Student Centre) or online via Google Meet: meet.google.com/bax-ujrd-wti EOTC Open Day at Evolution School of Beauty in Whangarei EOTC Year 9-13 table tennis champs at Kensington Inter-iwi basketball Year 11 & 12 Rostered Home
Wednesday 21 June	Fire extinguisher course at OHS EOTC Year 9-13 Mid week football girls and boys teams (after school) EOTC L2/L3 Hospitality to MIT Otara campus Year 9 & 13 Rostered Home Full Board of Trustees meeting 6pm (school library)
Thursday 22 June	EOTC L2/L3 Hospitality to MIT Otara campus EOTC Kiwi Tag Seniors at Bluegoose Whangarei EOTC Aquash team Year 9 -13 at Whangarei Squash Centre Construction site access course at Maungaturoto Country Club Inter-iwi basketball Year 10 & 11 Rostered Home
Friday 23 June	EOTC Year 9 -13 Basketball girls and boys teams afterschool Inter-iwi basketball

View our full School Calendar here

From the Senior Leadership Team

Teachers have rejected the Ministry of Education's latest offer which means more planned strike action for the last three weeks of this term. As a result, there will be no classes running for year 9 to 13s on the following days.

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
(8) 12-16 June	Year 11 & 12	Year 9 & 13	Year 10 & 11	Year 12 & 13
(9) 19 - 23 June	Year 9 & 10	Year 11 & 12	Year 9 & 13	Year 10 & 11
(10) 26 - 30 June	Year 12 & 13	Year 9 & 10	Year 11 & 12	Year 9 & 13

Teachers have been asked to set work for them to carry out at home. It is particularly important for year 11-13 students to keep up with their work. Here are some tips to support your learners during this time.

Remind them to bring home their workbooks and other paper resources.
Get them to check all of their google classrooms for work each day that they are rostered home.
Encourage them to finish any incomplete tasks on Education Perfect or in their workbooks or exercise books if they run out of work.
Suggest that they revise their topics by reading over the material, writing study notes or cards and completing practice questions.
Tell students to email their teachers if they have any questions about their work.
If you have no internet access at home, you or your student/s could request paper work (in advance) from teachers.
Provide a quiet place for them to work and regular breaks/snacks.
Perhaps offer a reward for when they have completed work such as a trip to the skate park or a gaming session.

On Thursday a team of 14 year 9 and 10 students went to the Mathex competition at WBHS. They all had a great time with the highlight being the third placing overall for the Year 9 team. This team was made up by members Klyde Clarke, Lili Gallo, Micaiah Cochrane and Finley McKenzie.

We are pleased to report overall attendance at Otamatea High School so far this term is 86.5% well above the national average. Regular attendance at school is one of the most significant factors in supporting students’ success. Every day a student is absent from school they miss 20% of their learning for that week.

If your child is absent from school a parent/caregiver must report the absence to the school as soon as possible. There are four ways to report an absence. By phone, call our Absence number 0800682628 and leave a detailed message. Our school website by clicking report a student absence on the home page. By sending an email to absence@otamatea.school.nz and finally you can also report a student absence via the KAMAR app.

Upcoming year 10 NCEA literacy and numeracy Common Assessment Activities. Next year sees the introduction of a number of changes to NCEA. One of the changes is the creation of new standards that will directly assess literacy and numeracy as co-requisites to the NCEA qualification. These standards (three in total - reading, writing and numeracy) will replace existing avenues to meet these NCEA requirements and will take the form of digital examinations. Although students do not need to pass these literacy and numeracy standards until next year, they are available nationally for students to complete next week. We believe that a number of our year 10 students are ready to sit these assessments. As a result, our English and mathematics departments are inviting a group of year 10s to complete these assessments next week on Monday and or Tuesday, depending on whether they will be completing the literacy (reading & writing) and/or the numeracy assessment tasks. If students pass one or more of these assessments, they will earn the credits this year, and this will take some of the pressure off them having to complete these in 2024. If students do not pass, then we will treat this as a learning opportunity to help identify the work still needed to enable these students to pass when they are in year 11. In other words, year 10s have nothing to lose by having a go at these assessments next week, but could get a head start on the completion of their NCEA level 1 if they do pass one or more of these assessment tasks this year. You will have been informed if your child is involved with these examinations next week.

A few reminders for students for the day of their examination.

- You must bring your own laptop or chromebook (that you bring everyday). Please ensure that it is fully charged.
- You must have created an NZQA account. Each year 10 student has been sent an email with instructions on how to do this.
- For the numeracy examination, students are able to use "Polly" which will read the questions for them. This will require students to bring their own headphones.

If you require more information regarding these examinations, please get in touch with your childs english (for the literacy examination) or mathematics (for the numeracy exam) teacher.

Ball Tickets will go on sale next week. Year 12 and 13 students will be permitted to bring outside partners to the school ball with the approval of the principal. Students who would like to bring an outside partner will need to fill in a form at the front office. The ball committee are working really hard to ensure that everybody has a wonderful night at our school ball.

School News

Northland Clay Target Shoot - Kaikohe Congratulations to the Otamatea High School team who placed 1st in the Teams event on Wednesday 7th June. The team won by one point ahead of Huanui College.

Congratulations also go to Aaron Harrison who placed first and Kellan Antunovich who placed second in the single rise division. This is the first time in many years that Otamatea have won the teams event.

Oscar Curtin, Y7 and his friend Reuben Pow (Y8 from Mahurangi College) performed in the Smokefree Tangatabeats division of Rockquest on the 12th May in Auckland competing against 24 other bands and they have qualified as one of the top 13 to compete in the Auckland Regional Finals on the 17th June. They are currently working on their 2nd original song, 50% of which will be translated and performed in Te Reo.

Smokefree Tangatabeats is a live, original music, nationwide youth event that recognises and reflects the unique cultural identity of Aotearoa New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Well done to both Oscar and Reuben.

On June 4th to 6th a Silver Duke of Edinburgh group travelled to the Volcanic Plateau to complete their silver qualifying tramp on some tracks of the Tongariro Northern Circuit and a day off track route finding. The group experienced all types of weather over the three days...rain, sleet, snow, strong wind and sun. They put all their skills learned from their training weekend and practice tramp into various leadership roles as they tramped over lava flows, down scree slopes, over mountain saddles, culminating in going behind the Taranaki Falls. All agreed that this was their best tramping adventure yet!

A huge thanks to the shadow party... Andrea Orchard, Anna Van Harlingen, Robyn Bruce and especially Stephen Orchard for making this such a wonderful experience for all.

News from the PE and Health Department

It has been a very busy term for PE and alongside our teaching and learning programme we have run several inter iwi competitions including unihoc and football. The School Cross Country is fast approaching and is always a great event. We would love to see you there supporting your child and our school. I have attached a photo from last year's cross country to give you an idea of what to expect! There is a great viewing point at the Otamatea skate park on Bickerstaffe road and the start/finish line is always full of fun mudslides to finish.

Health
Your Year 7,8,9 & 10 children have been working on their understanding of Hauora. I would love to encourage this conversation at home. What do you do as a whānau to look after your social, mental & emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing? How do you support your child's growth in these areas of their life?

Below is a great activity you can do at home with your child.
You’re Full of Great Things!
The My Gifts activity encourages kids to appreciate their good qualities, such as talents and strengths. In this creative, self-esteem-boosting exercise, they’ll focus on their strong points, while crafting a “gift” box that reflects all their great characteristics.

Materials Required - For this exercise, you will need:
■ Gift box template (see Step 4) ■ Scissors ■ Glue ■ Markers ■ Craft items to decorate with (such as stickers, sequins, glitter, etc.) ■ Small pieces of paper with different gifts written on them
[Note: Prepare the small pieces of paper in advance. The examples provided in Step 2 may be helpful.]

Instructions
1. Take a few moments to explain the exercise. Introduce your child to the idea that our ‘insides’ are full of good things - our traits, talents, and characteristics make us who we are, rather like a box of gifts!

2. Use the pieces of paper you’ve prepared to help your child or student brainstorm and circle their unique gifts, traits and talents. If they feel their great qualities aren’t on the list or papers, invite them to write them down! Feel free to add your own here.

Some examples to get you started include:

Considerate	Hardworking	Curious	Patient	Grateful
Modest	Creative	Positive	Brave	Calm
Proactive	Loyal	Gentle	Hopeful	Honest
Helpful	Inventive	Sensitive	Bubbly	Kind

3. Talking through different gifts together, see if the child or children can give some examples of when they’ve shown these gifts in the past. Alternatively, brainstorm some little ways that they show them each day.

4. Using the template below, ask the student or children to cut out and adorn their gift box so it’s “their own”. They may want to write their name on it, use their favorite color markers, or get creative with stickers and drawings!

5. Lastly, invite the children to fill their gift boxes with the pieces of paper they’ve chosen. Explain that they can open the box to see all their unique gifts whenever they want to be reminded of all their great qualities!