Principal's News

COVID: On Tuesday we received news of our first confirmed case of COVID-19 in our school. Since then we have been notified of six more positive cases, including one staff member, all of whom are isolating. We also have a number of household contacts who are also isolating. It was always inevitable that COVID would arrive in our communities and so this has not come as a surprise. Given the trends we have seen elsewhere, we expect the number of these cases to continue to increase over the coming weeks. Please continue to take protective measures to help keep our community safe - wear a mask, social distance and follow good hygiene practices. Under Phase 3 of the Omicron response, only confirmed cases and their household contacts need to self-isolate.

We have experienced very high rates of absenteeism over the past few days. If your child is not a household contact, and is not displaying COVID-19 symptoms, then they can continue to attend school. The evidence we have from Auckland and overseas is that there is very little onward spread through the school by students. Please be assured that the health and wellbeing of our school community is our top priority.

Online Learning: Students who are isolating at home and are well enough to complete schoolwork, can access our online learning platform here. 

Emergency Bus Routes: As the COVID-19 pandemic escalates throughout New Zealand, bus operators all around the country will struggle to source enough drivers to continue school bus operations. It is expected that the Otamatea High School bus routes will be impacted by driver shortages in the coming weeks. As a result, our transport managers Easybus have developed an emergency bus route plan. Where possible, pairs of routes will be combined to ensure that there is a service available to everyone who needs it. Some bus routes will commence earlier while some routes will commence later than usual. In some cases, routes may also be modified. As the situation worsens, some bus routes may even have to be cancelled. If a bus route is cancelled, then parents/caregivers will unfortunately have to make alternative arrangements to get students to school. Please click this link to see the live status of our bus routes.

Changes to vaccination requirements for school activities: As indicated by Minister Hipkins recently, all children and young people will soon be able to participate in all school-organised teams and groups regardless of their vaccination status. An amendment to the Health Order will now be needed and we anticipate these changes will take effect no later than Tuesday 15 March. This will apply to onsite and offsite activities for both curriculum-related (including offsite education outside the classroom) and extra-curricular activities offered by a registered school. This change will apply to intra-school and inter-school competitions/activities as well as competitions/activities where school teams/groups compete against other teams/groups which are not from a school. For example, the school kapa haka group competing against adult groups in a regional competition. For now, the existing requirements/permissions under the Health Order remain in place. 

Swimming Gala: We held our 57th annual Swimming Gala at school on Thursday. Due to a combination of our high roll and the need to limit crowding by the pool, this year's gala meant only the swimmers were poolside. Non swimmers had customised timetabled classes running on the day. It was lovely seeing the inter-iwi spirit on display and the high levels of enthusiasm and excitement shown by all the swimmers. Well done to our two record breakers - Alex Ball and Noah Martin.  Alex broke a whopping 5 records on the day while Noah added to his 2021 tally with two new records himself. What a fantastic effort! A huge thank you to our amazing helpers on the day - we couldn't pull off such a successful day without your support. 

B-Block: Three of the five B-block classrooms are now ready for use from Monday onwards. These rooms look great, and each has a set of new tables and chairs. New blinds, data projectors and air conditioning units have also been installed in these classrooms. Thank you to those students who are timetabled into these classes for their patience over the past few weeks as they have had to put up with regular daily room changes. I'm sure they will enjoy their new classrooms

Ngā mihi
Dirk Smyth